MBA students at IIT Kanpur traditionally delve on case studies prepared by Harvard Business School. However, Friday turned out to be an exciting exception to this routine.

Imagine, being in a senior position of an Indian Bank, which till date has only domestic presence. The Board of Directors has asked you to make a plan for foray into the international markets. You have to start from scratch, plan the countries you want to go to, the kind of products you want to offer and possibly forge alliances with other banks and even decide on the staffing and organizational structure…sounds exciting? Definitely, it is and it got the adrenalin rushing in the young ‘managers to be’ at IIT Kanpur campus.

The occasion was a talk by Mr. Bhargav Dasgupta, Head-International Banking Group, ICICI Bank. Instead of giving a lecture, he threw the challenge he had faced a few years back (that of planning an international foray) to the students and what evolved was a lively 2-hour discussion on possible alternatives and their pros and cons. The lecture hall almost seemed like a boardroom with arguments and counter-arguments flying thick and fast.

Mr. Dasgupta finally presented the strategy that the bank had actually followed and the present status of their international banking business.

On being asked about the most important lesson that he had learnt out of his career so far, Mr. Dasgupta responded, “ It is important to realize that strategies should never be rigid. You must be receptive to the vagaries of business and be ready to modify your strategy according to the business environment”.