Ashley Saltzman
- Business
- Customer Experience
- Master Of Ceremonies
- Negotiation Skills
Ashley Saltzman is an international negotiator and commercial escalation specialist with more than 30 years of experience in large-scale technology transformations. He helps leaders understand why major transformation programmes get into trouble, how commercial crises escalate, and what it takes to get them back on track.
Known as “the man who defuses bombs” Ashley has spent his career resolving high-stakes commercial escalations, complex negotiations and disputes across the technology industry. He has worked on more than 700 escalations, often in situations where commercial tensions are high, stakeholder relationships have broken down and major programmes are at risk.
Ashley is a Strategic Negotiator at Accenture, working within its Global Resolution Excellence Centre across Asia Pacific. Previously, he spent seven years at SAP as Head of Commercial Escalations across Asia Pacific Japan and the UK & Ireland, helping executive teams navigate and negotiate the commercial and delivery challenges of more than 160 troubled SAP S/4HANA transformation programmes. Earlier in his career at IBM, he negotiated the resolution of more than 500 major escalations across Australia and New Zealand.
As a speaker, Ashley draws on these real-world experiences to take audiences inside the commercial crises, difficult negotiations and critical decisions that can determine the fate of major transformations. His story-led keynote, Defusing Commercial Bombs, reveals how seemingly manageable problems escalate into major crises - and what it takes to defuse them. He also delivers practical sessions on transformation recovery and negotiation skills for transformation leaders.
Beyond the keynote, Ashley offers his signature interactive 60-minute Roundtable, giving audiences the opportunity to ask questions, explore real-world challenges and discuss the issues on their minds.
Ashley has also developed Negotiating Escalations, a masterclass in negotiation and escalation management that was first developed and delivered globally at SAP, including through the SAP Global Academy in San Ramon, California.
He is also the author of The Man Who Defuses Bombs, drawing on his experience resolving major commercial escalations across global technology programmes.
Ashley combines executive-level commercial experience, compelling real-world stories and practical lessons for leaders responsible for complex transformation initiatives.
- Defusing Commercial Bombs
- Why Transformations Go Wrong - and How Leaders Get Them Back on Track
- Negotiation Skills for Transformation Leaders
Ashley is a great strategic thinker and communicator. It is a pleasure working with Ashley on the FMC Board.
Ashley brought excellent critical negotiation and commercial skills to successfully turn clients with serious disruptions to their business operations by managing the issues causing this. This involved sourcing IBM global resources, negotiating release, travel and budget with their management and successfully dealing with C level client executives to agree clear exit criteria. Ashley also volunteered to take on additional process improvement work. An example is that he worked very closely with me and global counterparts to put in place a pervasive issue identification process. He led the successful resolution of a number of these issues improving overall client satisfaction leading to additional revenue for IBM. I would have no hesitation in recommending Ashley for any senior position involving high level management, arbitration and commercial skills. His performance for me was always exceptional.
Ashley has always maintained a high level of patience with clients and the ability to be a great mediator to ensure client’s issues are resolved advantageously for the client and the business. Client experience is a main focus for Ashley and always ensures services are delivered above expectations. Ashley is also very organised and is a great manager and team player.