Ductile bulk metallic glasses are produced from intrinsically brittle precursors by proper control of shear band formation and propagation. This ductilization strategy is based on the creation of alternating soft and hard regions via imprinting at room temperature. The stress fields resulting from these regions interfere with the process of irreversible deformation and effectively limit shear bands from propagating catastrophically. © 2011 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.