SmartPath Consulting
Clarity is the rarest thing in business.
We help you find it.
SmartPath Consulting is a Dubai-based boutique advisory firm working with companies and leaders across the globe — helping them enter new markets, grow commercial performance, and build teams that truly serve.
Customer Experience & People Development
Led by Tamara Aksentijevic,
our people practice focuses on customer service excellence, leadership development, and frontline team training. With 17+ years at Emirates Airline — one of the world's most demanding service organisations — Tamara brings a deep understanding of what truly exceptional service looks like.
Commercial & Strategy Advisory
Led by Nikola Aksentijevic,
our commercial practice serves companies in consumer electronics, technology, and general trade. With 20+ years across Samsung, Nokia, Microsoft, Epson, and HMD Global, Nikola brings real-world experience from some of the world's most demanding commercial environments.
Two disciplines. One firm. Uncommon results.
Why SmartPath
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We have done it ourselves — our advice comes from real operating experience, not frameworks alone.
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We work with you, not at you — every engagement is a genuine collaboration.
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We are boutique by design — small enough to be personally invested, experienced enough to make a real difference.
Two people. Deep expertise. A firm built on doing things properly.
SmartPath Consulting was founded Ona simple belief:
"Great Consulting should feel less like a service and more like a partnership."
"We are a boutique advisory practice — deliberately small, deeply experienced, and personally committed to every client we work with. We serve clients globally, from our base in Dubai — a city that sits at the intersection of the world's most dynamic growth markets. Our work spans commercial strategy, market entry, operational performance, and people development, across industries and geographies as diverse as our own careers."
Nikola Aksentijevic — Founder & Managing Partner
Nikola is a commercial and operations executive with over 20+ years of experience scaling businesses across Consumer Electronics, Telecoms, Software, and FMCG in the MENEA, APAC, and EMEA regions.
His career spans some of the most recognisable names in global business. At Samsung Gulf Electronics, he served as Director and Head of the Visual Display Group — holding full P&L responsibility across the Middle East and delivering consistent growth against a declining regional market. At HMD Global, he was one of the founding commercial leaders, helping relaunch the Nokia brand globally and achieving $5.5 billion in net sales in the first full trading year. At Microsoft, he led commercial operations across APAC and IMEA for the Phones division, overseeing a $2.4 billion revenue target. Earlier in his career, Nikola held progressive leadership roles at Nokia Corporation across IMEA and MEA, built the MENEA commercial strategy for Epson's consumer division, and started his career in brand and sales management at Coca-Cola in Serbia.
He holds a Master's degree in Telecommunications from the University of Westminster and a Bachelor's degree in Electronic and Electrical Engineering from the University of Surrey.
Today, through SmartPath Consulting, Nikola advises companies on GTM strategy, channel architecture, market entry planning, and operational excellence — drawing on two decades of experience doing exactly that at the highest levels.
Tamara Aksentijevic — Founder & Head of People & Customer Practice
Tamara is a learning and development leader with over 17 years of experience at Emirates Airline — world's most demanding and admired service organisations.
Her career at Emirates spanned a range of progressive roles, from Purser Cabin crew to Leadership Trainer and Image and Uniform Trainer, giving her a ground-level understanding of what it actually takes to build a high-performing, customer-centred team.
As a Leadership Trainer at Emirates, Tamara delivered high-impact, competency-based training programes to a truly multicultural audience — developing individuals across all levels of the organisation through coaching, continuous assessment, and performance management. She collaborated closely with third parties and senior stakeholders to align training delivery with corporate objectives and business plans.
As a senior Flight Purser , she took full operational and leadership responsibility for cabin crew performance on every flight — mentoring, coaching, and delivering the highest standard of passenger experience. It is this combination of front-line service experience and professional training expertise that makes her approach genuinely distinctive.
Tamara holds a Diploma in Human Resources Management from the University of Leicester, and is certified in Transformational Leadership, Emotional Intelligence, the Neuroscience of Learning, Leading a Customer-Centric Culture, and Coaching and Developing Employees.
Through SmartPath Consulting, Tamara designs and delivers customer service training programmes, leadership development workshops, and frontline capability-building initiatives for organisations that want their people to be their strongest asset.
"Between us, we have built businesses, launched products in dozens of markets, trained thousands of people, and worked across five continents. We started SmartPath because we wanted to put all of that experience to work for the companies and leaders who need it most."
What we do
SmartPath operates across two distinct practice areas. Each brings a different kind of expertise — but both share the same commitment to practical, real-world impact.
Commercial & Strategy Advisory
Built for companies that need sharp commercial thinking — not just analysis, but execution-ready strategy.
Consumer Electronics
GTM & Channel Strategy
Software & Technology
Market Entry Planning
Operational Excellence
General Trade & Commodities
The consumer electronics market is one of the most competitive and fast-moving commercial environments in the world. We help CE brands design and execute go-to-market strategies that actually work in the real world — from channel architecture and distributor management, to retail activation, pricing frameworks, and e-commerce integration.
This is not advisory from the sidelines. Nikola spent over a decade leading GTM and channel strategy at Samsung, Nokia, and Epson across the Middle East and beyond — and the work we do for clients reflects that depth of operating experience.
Who this is for: Consumer electronics brands entering or expanding in MENEA markets, or rethinking their commercial approach in an existing geography.
Entering a new market as a software or technology company is far more complex than it looks. Regulatory environments, partner ecosystems, pricing localisation, sales model selection — each decision has long-term consequences. We help technology companies structure a credible, commercially sound market entry plan, and work alongside leadership teams to pressure-test and refine it.
Who this is for: Software companies, SaaS businesses, and technology vendors planning entry into MENEA or other emerging markets.
For businesses operating in general trade or commodity-focused sectors, margin management, distribution efficiency, and supply chain discipline are everything. We work with leadership teams to identify and address structural inefficiencies — whether in channel margin architecture, demand planning, forecasting, or partner management — and build the operational foundations for sustainable growth.
Who this is for: General trade businesses, commodity distributors, and companies looking to improve the structural economics of their operations.
Customer Experience & People Development
Designed for organisations that understand:
Their people are the product - and want to invest in them accordingly
Customer Service Training Programes
Leadership Development & Coaching
Team Culture & Service Standards Design
Customer service is not a department — it is a culture. We design and deliver bespoke training programmes that help frontline teams understand what great service really looks like, develop the mindset and skills to deliver it consistently, and take genuine pride in the experience they create for every customer.
Drawing on Tamara's experience training thousands of people at one of the world's most customer-obsessed airlines, our programmes are practical, human, and built to last beyond the training room.
Who this is for: Companies in retail, hospitality, aviation, financial services, or any sector where customer experience is a competitive differentiator.
Great leaders are not born — they are developed. We work with managers and team leaders to build the confidence, emotional intelligence, and coaching skills they need to get the best from their people. Our leadership programmes are competency-based and grounded in real-world application, not theory.
Who this is for: Organisations investing in their middle-management layer, or companies going through growth and change who need their leaders to step up.
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For organisations looking to raise the bar across the board, we work at the systemic level — helping define service standards, build feedback and coaching cultures, and create the conditions in which teams genuinely want to perform at their best.
Who this is for: Businesses undergoing transformation, rapid growth, or a deliberate repositioning of their customer experience.
WHO WE WORK WITH
We work with a focused range of clients because the work we do requires genuine commitment on both sides.
Here is who we are best placed to help.
Companies entering or expanding in the Middle East and beyond
The MENEA region rewards those who understand it and penalises those who do not. We work with international companies navigating this market for the first time, as well as established players looking to sharpen their commercial approach or expand into new territories within the region.
Organisations serious about customer experience
We work with businesses that genuinely believe customer experience is a strategic priority — not just a tagline. If you are looking for someone to run a one-day workshop and tick a box, we are probably not the right fit. If you want to build something that actually changes how your people show up for customers, let's talk.
Consumer electronics and Technology brands
From global brands with regional P&Ls to ambitious challengers looking to break through — we understand this industry deeply, and we know what separates the GTM strategies that work from the ones that look good in a deck.