For academic year AY 2025-26, International Immersion was planned in Europe, with 45 students attending a two-week immersion at SDA Bocconi Business School, Italy and 45 students attending the same at ESADE Business School, Spain, between March 9 and 20, 2026. In light of the geopolitical tensions that erupted a week before travel, the programme had to reorient the immersion plans. The MBAEx students attended the immersion online with the two European schools, and for the remainder we collaborated with NTU-NSB, Singapore for a one-week offline immersion. This enabled a cross-cultural, multi-market, multi-school immersion with three different business schools across two continents, and in a hybrid mode – online and offline.
ESADE Barcelona innovated an online Hackathon, with key themes on Entrepreneurship and Responsible Business. Key learnings revolved around,
- Sustainability mindset and systems thinking
- Planetary Boundaries framework
- Safe and Just Space / Doughnut Economics
- Limits to Growth and system dynamics modeling
- Scenario thinking about global sustainability futures
- Human–planet interdependence and ethical responsibility
- Entrepreneurship
- Highlight: Online Hackathon
SDA Bocconi Italy focused on Differentiation Strategies: Made in Italy, peaking with scenario planning on hydrogen strategy as Live Project. Key learnings revolved around,
- Nuances of digital transformation
- The "four villains of digital transformation on what not to do when trying to digitize an organization”.
- Concepts of Digitization, Digitalization, Digital Transformation, Digital Disruption and Digital innovation.
- Scenario Planning
- Post Digital Strategy
- Highlight: Hydrogen Challenge with Scenario Planning for Hydrogen in Europe
At Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, for the physical immersion from March 23, 2026 to March 27, 2026, the students had an AI-based FUTURE OF WORK add-on, with all 90 students travelling to Singapore. Key learnings revolved around,
- Future Customer Experience with AI
- Digital Transformation
- Future of Work and impact of AI
- Sustainable Finance
- Neuro Marketing and Neuro Sciences
- Industry Speaker: How to Start Business in Singapore
- Highlight: A round-table was organized with IIM Calcutta Alumni in Singapore. Alumni attending included,
- Samir Arora, Founder, Managing Partner, Helios Capital
- Bhaskar Rao, Founder CEO, Digital SEA
- Rahul Patwardhan, former Global CEO, NIIT
- Pushpa Gupta, Partner, Deloitte
- Rajen Makhijani, Leadership Development Coach (former McKinsey)
- Sanjiv Aiyar, Founder Aapkar Consulting, IIM Calcutta Board Member – Moderator
- Special Mention: There was a mini-MBAEx Singapore alumni meet with Saurabh Prashar (Batch 10, 2017) and Mr Ankit Dhall (Batch 11, 2018) at the historic Gardens by the Bay
