To stimulate fresh, 'out-of-the-box' thinking and to introduce a spirit of competition, two teams of young managers, named the 'red' and 'blue' teams, have been formed in each of GIL's businesses. The teams will work separately and chalk out recommendations for future growth of their respective business. The recommendations will then be reviewed and amalgamated, as deemed necessary, by another team called the 'plum' team, which is composed of top management from those businesses.

On January 15, 2001, A B Godrej, chairman of the Godrej Group, presented an overview of the new corporate planning process. Later the same day, to kick-start this strategic planning exercise, Prof C K Prahalad, Harvey Fruehauf professor of business administration at the University of Michigan Business School, and an internationally reputed strategic management guru, addressed the red and blue teams in the presence of company directors and respective business heads on the methodology to be adopted. Prof Prahalad's presentation was followed by a question-and-answer session.