Abhinav Mital
Class of 2008





“All the work I do has a tinge of entrepreneurship in it,” says Abhinav Mital, Partner, The Parthenon Group, from his offices in Singapore. His upbringing – raised in a family where both parents are entrepreneurs – led him to imbibe his particular entrepreneurial qualities.

Prior to business school, Abhinav worked with a textile company where his role was to set up an entirely new line of business – Abhinav was the first employee hired for this green field initiative. Even after ISB, in 2008, when he joined The Parthenon Group, a tier 1 strategy advisory house, Abhinav was a member of a five-person team. Since then, they have managed to grow considerably, expanding offices across Asia to a strength of 80 employees.

By 2013, Abhinav was promoted to Partner at Parthenon. His specialization is in strategy for the education sector, and he spends about 60 percent of his work life meeting clients in the education space. His favourite aspect of his job is that his work, given the sector, “has a deep impact, influencing the way society functions.” There is also, he says, “the charm of visiting new places”. Abhinav’s work has taken him to almost 40 countries in the last 5 years.

The most fascinating trends emerge in Abhinav’s line of work, when you look at how technology and education are coming together to create new models of education. “There is the challenge of how to merge technology with education, and harness its potential to effectively deliver.” The other area of interest, he says, is the ever-increasing mobility of international students, and the unique models of education that are being built to cater to this new demographic.

Abhinav fondly recalls all the ISB parties as the most memorable aspect of his time on campus. On a more serious note, he credits ISB with changing the way he thinks about business. He says, “ISB formalized and structured my thinking and opened up new avenues in the way I think… My approach to evaluating issues changed drastically, [for the better].”