The CEO that Deploys Empathy Over EBITDA 

We talked to Sean Price on how Velez Managed Services specializes in third party hardware maintenance, data centre, server, storage and networking and he had the following to say about it. 

First of all, how are you and your family doing in these COVID-19 times? 

Sean Price: We have adapted as any other business, family or organization has to in these times. Certainly my family, much like our company is geographically spread out and so has caused many disruptions but between video calls, limited travel and good structure/planning, we have maintained a great sense of balance. 

Tell us about you, your career, how you founded Velez Managed Services.

Sean Price: I had a background in software from having run a company for over a decade in that space, and so when I founded Velez Managed Services, it was because I saw how many companies in the industry really didn’t innovate much (if at all) and appeared to be carbon copies of one another.

How does Velez Managed Services innovate? 

Sean Price: It’s one thing to offer IT services, break-fix or third party maintenance on a global scale but the reality is so many are adding little to no value and do not care about the customer. 

How the coronavirus pandemic affects your business, and how are you coping?

Sean Price: Without a doubt, it hit every industry, some worse than others. For Velez, our professional services department took a huge hit, whereas our maintenance and support teams saw an uptick in business. We used this time to create better processes, structure and keep our team, customers and suppliers as positive as possible. 

Did you have to make difficult choices, and what are the lessons learned?

Sean Price: Many difficult choices, in fact, having to hire more people during the pandemic is a difficult choice as we don’t know when the world will return to any sense of normality. But we have to continue to deliver services for our customers as well as manage expectations, improve processes and deliver excellence. 

How do you deal with stress and anxiety?

Sean Price: It’s not an easy one for anyone to deal with, in order to manage I like to run and cycle as well as attempt to meditate daily and keep to a structured routine every day.

Who are your competitors? And how do you plan to stay in the game?

Sean Price: Whilst there are competitors out there, many are reliant on doing things the way they have always been done, well then you will get what you have always gotten. At Velez, we innovate, monitor and improve – daily. 

Your final thoughts?

Sean Price: Empathy over EBITDA – something I’ve spoken about a lot during this pandemic internally. We can’t expect 2020 to be a year of enormous financial growth for anyone – but we can make it the year that we have enormous growth around the empathy towards people inside and outside of the organization.

 Your website?

velezmanagedservices.com