In this rapid‑fire interview, Professor Pete Alexander hosts Sean Price, founder and CEO of Velez Managed Services, a global IT services firm. Sean explains the unique "co‑opetition" dynamic of the industry, where a single relationship can involve friendship, competition, partnership, and client‑supplier roles simultaneously. He emphasizes that the most critical chapter for companies is on empathic leadership, especially post‑pandemic. Sean advocates for work‑life integration over traditional balance, sharing personal practices like bringing his young son into boardroom meetings and modeling mental‑health‑friendly behavior. He recounts sending a company‑wide email during the pandemic to maintain a positive outlook. When asked about mentors, he recommends Andrew Scott, a UK business leader he admires. Sean describes his first job as an 18‑year‑old entrepreneur who founded a software services company, ran it for ten years, and learned from early failures. He cites UK startup failure rates (≈75% in the first three years, 50% in five) and encourages young founders to act while risk is low. The episode concludes with contact information, directing listeners to Sean’s LinkedIn profile.
Chapters
This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast, where business leaders share their insights. It is 6 questions in 7 minutes because successful business leaders are busy and rarely have more time to spare. So let's get to it. Question number 1: In a few sentences, please tell me who you are and what you do.
My name is Sean Price. I'm the founder and CEO of Velez Managed Services. We are a global IT services business based in the UK. We have offices in the US and in Europe, and we manage large enterprise-scale IT services, particularly in data centers all around the world.
Well, Sean, it's an absolute pleasure to have you on the show. Question number 2: What is something that makes you smile and/or laugh about working in your industry?
I think we work in an industry which is quite unique and really, really is something that you don't see elsewhere, where you can be a friend, you can be a competitor, you can be a supplier, a partner, a client, all with the same individual at the same time. And it really does interest me when I'm sat across a meeting table from somebody and we go, "Hey, we did a deal 6 months ago. Today we're competing on another deal, but hey, next week, let's remember to catch up because we are actually assisting each other on another deal." later down the line. So it's a really unique one where we all get to be— it's co-opetition, as it's often referred to.
I love that, and that makes it, makes it, uh, exciting and positive at the same time, I would imagine.
100%.
Wonderful. Question number 3: I have a fictitious book with all the answers for business. What chapter would you think most companies should read?
Most companies should definitely read the chapter on being an empathic leader. That's something that a lot of companies now are forcing to be much better with, with what's happened with the global pandemic. But it's something where a lot of focus needs to be driven. And if you've got the book with all the answers, that's the chapter we should be reading.
I love it, and I totally agree with you. It's a great, great suggestion. Question number 4: Other than the generic work harder, have a great attitude, and care for customers, what advice or insight would you give to other business leaders?
Well, if it's not already in your book, I think that the best advice is really to work on what I refer to as work-life integration, right? I don't think when you are a senior leader, a senior executive, someone at the top of a business, I don't think you can promote balance to your employees when you're not balanced yourself. And I feel that trying to bring balance into your life when you're running a startup or a scale-up is almost impossible to do so. I have a 4-year-old son who often comes with me into the boardroom for the afternoon whilst I'm getting work done. You know, he witnesses phone calls and Zoom calls. And so, you know, that ability to integrate both your work and your life rather than balance, my opinion is integration is a key there. And I think that if leaders can understand that, then employees will understand that. And I think a lot of the times employees are too afraid to request certain things like a mental health day, for example, because they look up to the leadership team. What's the leadership team doing? They're always on, they're always going, they never stop. You don't have to be like that. Find that integration, find that balance, if that's what you want to call it, and you'll see tremendous growth within the organization.
Hmm. And it is so, so insightful what you're sharing because I can imagine, you know, Many times when I worked at organizations where you said it, you hit the nail on the head. It's you, you're, you're trying to follow what the leaders are showing. And, and, you know, if, if you have a person that you directly report to who's working all the time and never takes breaks and is firing off emails all the time, you almost feel like you have to keep up with that or else you're going to be considered a slacker. And what you're saying here is if you model it that the employees are more likely to trust you and to model that positive behavior as well. Am I understanding you clearly, Kelly?
100%. And, you know, I won't say I'm not guilty of those 3:00 AM emails. Of course I am, particularly when we operate on different time zones, that there needs to be an element of that. But I'll tell you what, I sent an email to the whole company back in August when this was still, you know, the pandemic was still in full swing. And I said, we made a management decision that we were gonna not participate in the recession that was coming. Because what we had to do was show people that positive mental attitude and that, hey, let's go get 'em.
Mm, that's a great way to do it. Thank you for sharing that. I think our listeners are gonna learn a lot from that as well. Question number 5, what other business leader like yourself would you like to acknowledge and invite to be on my podcast?
I often get asked who was my mentor, who did I look up to as I came up through business. And you know, there was never anyone who was technically a mentor, but there's a chap called Andrew Scott here in the UK who to this day I've watched him grow and sell businesses. I've watched him develop and really lead some insightful teams. And he'd be a fantastic guest. And you know, he's got some real stories that can put the hairs on the back of your neck go up.
Oh, I'm looking forward to that. I appreciate that referral. And our final question, question number 6, please tell me about your first job.
Job? I started off very fortunate where my first job was actually working for myself. I started, um, a company when I was 18 years old, and that was really my first job working for myself. And it was fantastic because it gave me the time and the ability to learn from a lot of mistakes very, very early on. One of the things that in the UK especially we're not that good at is accepting any failures or any mistakes. You know, we're very reserved in the UK, whereas in America it's very entrepreneurial. It's okay to fail and fail fast. And yeah, I started the company at 18. It was a software services business. And I was very fortunate to run that for 10 years before exiting. So learned from a lot of mistakes, learned to manage people better, learned to manage myself and my energy. And that was my first job.
Wow, and congratulations on having a success in that first job because a lot of people going out on their own, you know, it's their first time running a business and stuff, you know, how much failure— I'm assuming in the UK, it's a high percentage of startup companies fail in their first year, just like they have here in the US?
Absolutely. I think it's something like 75% in the first 3 years and 50% in the first 5. So yeah, it's high figures. But when you've got not a lot to risk, when you don't have huge responsibilities and overheads, and, you know, I didn't have a house at 18, right? I didn't have the mortgage. When you're young and you've got endless bounds of energy, go after it.
That's great advice. Thank you for that. And Sean, thank you so much for being on the show. How can people find you?
Easiest way to find me is look me up on LinkedIn, Sean Price. Um, I try to get involved in the other socials, but you know, I'm a CEO of a fast-growing business and I'm busy.
Absolutely. And that's why you're on this show. So this is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast. Thanks for listening.
