Ceo Sparring Partner. Ceo Sparring Partner.
Strategic AI advisory and CEO sparring partner services for business leaders navigating AI transformation.
In pivotal moments, when failure is not an option, a strategic partner who seamlessly blends human experience with AI-powered insights is invaluable.
WHY
Even the Best
Need Sparring
In professional sports, every champion preparing for his or her biggest challenges is surrounded by coaches and sparring partners. While coaches focus on strategy and overall readiness, the role of the sparring partner is to help refine responses to familiar situations and develop new skills for unpredictable moments in the game. This ensures that the champion is even better prepared to win.
Assess Your Needs
Need a Business Sparring Partner?
Please answer intuitively—trust your first instinct.
Challenge
It would help if...
Operational vs Strategic Focus
Operational tasks limit my strategic focus.
I had support to balance operations and strategy.
New Perspectives
I make decisions without a neutral counterpart who can challenge my assumptions and limitations.
I had a trusted partner to challenge my ideas
with unbiased perspectives.
I am not confident that I fully understand the dynamics of the digital economy and their impacts on our business.
I had insights to navigate the digital economy’s
impact on our business.
Digital Transformation
Our digital transformation lacks clear direction or
struggles to succeed.
I had support to set clear goals and drive
transformation.
Artificial Intelligence
We lack a plan to seize AI opportunities.
I had guidance to embed AI for business value.
Business Outcomes
We have untapped potential in cost optimization, customer experience, and employee experience. Additionally, some strategic projects do not deliver sufficient business benefits.
I had a partner to identify and unlock these opportunities for greater business impact.
A business sparring partner brings added value in addressing the following and many other key challenges:
Challenge: Operational vs Strategic Focus
Operational tasks limit my strategic focus.
It would help if: I had support to balance operations and
strategy.
Challenge: New Perspectives
I make decisions without a neutral counterpart who can challenge my assumptions and limitations.
It would help if: I had a trusted partner to challenge my ideas
with unbiased perspectives.
Challenge: Digital Economy
I am not confident that I fully understand the dynamics of the digital economy and their impacts on our business.
It would help if: I had insights to navigate the digital economy’s
impact on our business.
Challenge: Digital Transformation
Our digital transformation lacks clear direction or
struggles to succeed.
It would help if: I had support to set clear goals and drive
transformation.
Challenge: Artificial Intelligence
We lack a plan to seize AI opportunities.
It would help if: I had guidance to embed AI for business value.
Challenge: Business Outcomes
We have untapped potential in cost optimization, customer experience, and employee experience. Additionally, some strategic projects do not deliver sufficient business benefits.
It would help if: I had a partner to identify and unlock these opportunities for greater business impact.
HOW it WORKS
The Sparring Partner Approach
Great leaders refine their thinking through strategic dialogue. Our approach provides structured yet flexible engagement, ensuring clarity, insight, and impact where it matters most.
1. Needs and Expected Value
The process begins by identifying your key challenges, objectives, and the value you seek from a sparring partnership. This ensures alignment with your priorities.
2. Focus and Collaboration Scope
We determine the specific areas of engagement, whether decision-making, strategy, operations, or transformation, and tailor the scope to fit your needs.
3. Sparring Areas
Based on the focus, we identify the key themes and critical issues where sparring will provide the most impact, ensuring structured and meaningful discussions.
4. Collaboration Model
Select the engagement model that best fits your needs—whether a one-time session for a key decision or an ongoing partnership for continuous support.
SERVICES
Navigating complex challenges?
Gain clarity, challenge perspectives, and unlock new possibilities with a trusted sparring partner.
— Why me?
Meet Your Sparring Partner
My Mission
Passionately discovering the future of business and equipping leaders and organizations to thrive in it.
My Guiding Principles
- From Pressure to Freedom
- From Competition to Coexistence
- From Denial to Motivation
- From Knowledge to Action
- From Inside-Out to Outside-In
- From I Win to Our Win
Favorite Quotes
- "Culture eats strategy for breakfast." – Peter Drucker
- "Leadership is like friendship." – My own
Key Areas of Expertise & Inspirations
- Strategic Management & Competitive Advantage – Peter Drucker, Kaplan & Norton, Deming, Michael Porter, Jim Collins, Simon Sinek, Marc Sniukas, Roger Martin
- Change Management & Organizational Transformation – John Kotter, Ichak Adizes, PROSCI
- Business Model Innovation & Disruption – Alexander Osterwalder, Clayton M. Christensen
- Reinvention & Adaptability – Nadya Zhexembayeva
- Management 3.0 – Jurgen Appelo
- Management 4.0 – Klaus Schwab
- Business Agility, Agile & Lean Thinking – Business Agility Institute, Jeff Sutherland, Eric Ries
- Business Analysis & Decision-Making Frameworks – IIBA (International Institute of Business Analysis)
- Digital Strategy & Transformation – Rob Llewellyn, David L. Rogers
- Autonomous Business - Gary Hamel
- Business AI Transformation & the Intelligence Economy – AIVaaS™ (own methodology)
CEOs I Admire
Steve Jobs, Warren Buffett, Indra Nooyi, Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk
Who am I?
- A left- and right-brained thinker
- Strategic telescope logic & microscope analytic precision observer
- 25+ years experienced business strategy & transformation expert
- 10+ years experienced digital business transformation expert
- Creator of AIVaaS™, a business AI transformation methodology
- Thought leader & author in business innovation
- Executive sparring partner for top CEOs
Ales Stempihar | CEO & Founder, Askit (since 2006)
With 25+ years in strategic business transformations, I have spent the last decade at the meeting point of business and digital, and the last three years where that meeting point has moved: to business AI.
Working alongside 70+ CEOs and more than 100 executive leaders from top-tier organizations, I have seen where transformations stall: not in execution, but in the boardroom decisions that precede it.
That insight became AIVaaS™ (AI Value as a Service), a business AI transformation methodology that puts value realization before technology. I designed it in 2025 on a simple prediction: soon everyone would have AI, and the question would become value. 2026 confirmed it. The methodology is mine; the delivery is a team effort, together with AIVaaS™ Expert Alley, a long-standing team of senior experts.
I have sharpened my expertise through certifications in AI business transformation, business model transformation, and digital strategy, including Executive Education at the University of Cambridge, and as a Certified Reinvention Associate under Dr. Nadya Zhexembayeva.
I am also the author of '7 Key Questions for Every CEO', a practical guide for strategic decisions. In the Intelligence Economy, those questions matter more than ever.
In my work, I focus on trust, independence, safeguarding confidential information, and structured exploration to achieve tangible business value together with you.
Ales Stempihar | CEO Sparring Partner | Founder, Askit (since 2006)
You would likely agree that evaluating complex situations, making your own decisions, and assessing the reasoning behind the decisions of your leadership team is becoming increasingly challenging.
In such demanding circumstances, it would be highly valuable to gain an additional perspective, test key assumptions, and explore unseen alternatives. A fresh external perspective and experience from similar situations can further support the assessment of both strategies and proposed solutions before committing to action.
All these additional insights transform complexity into opportunity, uncertainty into decisive action, and strategic choices into decisions made with confidence.
To fully leverage these advantages, our collaboration provides four core benefits:
A Broader Perspective for Additional Value
→ A fresh external view helps reveal overlooked opportunities and provide a wider, more objective lens on key business challenges and decisions.
Enhanced Thinking
→ Testing key assumptions, uncovering blind spots, and ensuring that both strategic and operational challenges are approached with critical thinking, system thinking, and a structured problem-solving mindset.
Greater Confidence in Critical Decisions
→ Your own decisions and those of your leadership team are made with greater clarity and confidence, ensuring they are the right fit for the specific challenge at hand.
Better Business Outcomes
→ Turning insights into concrete improvements in efficiency, innovation, and sustainable performance—while ensuring that key decisions drive measurable impact and long-term success.
Whether you need a quick, high-impact session, a long-term sparring partner, or a focused deep dive into a complex challenge, I am here to help ensure these results are achieved.
With over two decades of experience in business strategy, strategy & business model innovations, organizational and leadership transformation, reinvention, and strategic change implementation, I have worked across industries to support organizations in navigating complex challenges. While my foundation is rooted in traditional management disciplines, my expertise has evolved with the economy itself: from the digital economy to the Intelligence Economy, where AI sits at the core of business transformation.
The interdisciplinary approach I apply is particularly valuable in areas where multiple perspectives must be aligned, such as Business AI Transformation, Customer-Centric Transformation, Digital Business Transformation, Business Model Innovation, and Operational Efficiency. This ensures that initiatives are both strategically sound and practically executable.
My ability to integrate insights from different fields enables me to contribute not only to high-level strategic planning but also to the transformation of specific business functions, including the strategic role of HR, IT, and Project Management Offices (PMO).
So, what sets me apart is my ability to see the strategic big picture while analyzing in depth—connecting expertise from various disciplines to provide a holistic and structured approach to complex business challenges. At the center of my current work is AIVaaS™ (AI Value as a Service), the business AI transformation methodology I created. It embeds AI ambition directly into business strategy through Ambition Fusion and turns it into an AI-Infused Business Strategy, with AI built into how value is created, delivered, and captured. I deliver it together with the AIVaaS™ Expert Alley team of senior experts. More at aivaas.biz.
Credentials & Recognitions
My expertise is backed by internationally recognized certifications in AI business transformation, business model transformation, reinvention, digital strategy, and business change from globally respected institutions. These certifications reinforce my ability to support CEOs in navigating complex transformations and making strategic decisions with confidence.
Selected Certifications:
- AI BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION Practitioner – CXO Transform, 2024
- BUSINESS MODEL TRANSFORMATION Practitioner – CXO Transform, 2024
- DIGITAL MATURITY INDEX Practitioner – Digitopia & CXO Transform, 2024
- Certified Reinvention Associate (CRA) – Reinvention Academy, 2023
- DIGITAL DISRUPTION & DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION – Cambridge Judge Business School, Executive Education, University of Cambridge, 2022
- DIGITAL STRATEGIES FOR BUSINESS: LEADING THE NEXT-GENERATION ENTERPRISE – Columbia Business School, 2019
- Experience Innovation Certificate – IDEO, 2017
- DIGITAL BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION MANAGEMENT – CXO Transform, 2018
- BCS Foundation Certificate in Business Change – BCS, 2014
Books & Thought Leadership
Beyond consulting and executive sparring, I actively contribute to business thought leadership through published books and strategic insights. My work focuses on equipping leaders with practical tools to navigate transformation and drive sustainable competitiveness.
Published
- Co-author of "FUTURE-PROOF BUSINESS APPROACHES" – A strategic guide for building resilient and competitive businesses.
- Lead author of "EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE – A Guide to Finding New Ways to Improve the Engagement of Your Employees" – A practical toolkit for enhancing workforce engagement and satisfaction.
- Author of the book "7 KEY QUESTIONS FOR EVERY CEO" – A strategic decision-making framework for strategy execution.
In addition to my business practice, I share my expertise as an executive lecturer at DOBA Faculty. In the DOBA Executive Academy, I lead the first module of the certified executive program 'AI and Digitalization for Experienced Managers': AI and Digitalization in Business Strategy. It is not a program about AI; it is a program about leading in the age of AI. I also lecture on 'Digital Strategy' and 'Digital Transformation & New Business Models' in degree programs, bridging strategic insights with practical application.
Testimonials
CEOs About Working With Me
Discover how top executives have benefited from sparring sessions—gaining new insights, refining strategies, strengthening decision-making, and resolving organizational challenges.
Aleš helped us assess our digital readiness and capabilities, educated us on digitalization, and led the preparation of KOTO’s digital strategy and projects for its implementation. Above all, he emphasized the importance of digital culture and change management, which we prioritized when communicating with our employees.
I have closely and effectively collaborated with Ales for several years in the field of business development, from multiple renewals of our business strategy to the preparation of our digital strategy.
Through my sparring sessions with Aleš, I gained a deeper understanding of the true meaning of business agility. This enabled me to lead our organization's transformation toward a more agile way.
Aleš helped us move beyond the traditional digital perspective of Industry 4.0 by deepening our understanding of digital business transformation—especially in terms of its impact on our customers and employees, where he fostered a positive digital mindset. Furthermore, through a highly professional collaboration, we jointly developed key strategic digital elements for I.H.S. and incorporated them into a comprehensive digital strategy document.
Across our business process and IT renovations, as well as in planning digital transformation initiatives, we have seen significant benefits from Aleš’s contributions as a sparring partner, mentor, and trusted advisor.
The digital strategy developed with Ales has provided an excellent foundation for enhancing our company's competitiveness in the digital economy.
With their business-analytical approach, Aleš redirected us from focusing on the renovation of individual IT systems to a comprehensive, customer-centric digital business transformation.
Back in 2015, Aleš already pointed out the importance of digitality, which led us to organize a Digital Day for all leaders at Petrol.
Insights
Gain Insights for Your Challenges
Stay ahead with strategic insights, fresh perspectives, and actionable ideas. Explore topics that help you navigate complex challenges, drive innovation, and make confident decisions in an ever-evolving business landscape.
