In this week’s episode we talk to Alistair Maiden, founder of legal tech company, Syke. Hear business tales and learnings from the legendary Ken Morrison, Alistair’s eureka moment for the business, how the business grew to an eventual multi-million pound sale in the US plus the hard changes that needed to take place after sale. Plus, what’s it like buying an abattoir? INTRODUCING ALISTAIR MAIDEN Alistair began his career as a lawyer, practising commercial and technology law for several years. Whilst Head of Contracts and the Data Protection Officer for ASDA, Alistair designed and implemented a digital contracting tool which reduced the average contract cycle from 17 days to just 5 days. In 2016, Alistair founded SYKE, with the mission to transform the legal industry by bridging the gap between legal teams and emerging legal tech. Under his leadership, SYKE has become a leading legal tech consultancy. Allistair has spoken at a variety of international events and won the Legal Technologist of the Year award at the 2019 FT Intelligent Business Awards. EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS [00:00:30] Introducing Syke [00:01:30] Alistair Maiden’s early career [00:04:00] Learning business lessons from Sir Ken Morrison [00:10:00] The lasting influence of ASDA’s culture and being part of Walmart [00:14:00] The birth of the idea of Syke [00:21:00] Taking the idea live [00:24:20] Growing into a ‘proper’ business [00:27:00] A new partnership arrives [00:34:00] The people who got you here won’t be the people to take you there [00:40:00] The sale of the business and culture change issues [00:46:00] Start up entrepreneur or big company executive KEY TAKEAWAYS & BUSINESS LEARNINGS • You get respect from your team by being in the detail • There’s no reason why you can’t work globally • You have to have the right attitude and make yourself ‘useful’ • Most partnerships, whilst looking good, don’t work • You must think of your business as a team not a family • Feathers will be rustled but you should assume good intentions BEST MOMENTS “Ken Morrison used to walk round the office leaving post-it notes on people’s PC” “Asda has a very unique and distinct culture. Loads of people from there are now running their own businesses” “We reduced the average contract cycle from 70 days to 5 days” “I spoke at the Law Society expecting 10 or 15 people, and there were 100s there” “I gave a 20 minute presentation and there was a hour of questions” “I had the passion but no plan…” VALUABLE RESOURCES FOR YOU Relevant links from the show, recommended Leeds business Website: www.leedsbusinesspodcast.com Website: https://syke.tech/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alistair-maiden-global-advisory-lead-consilio-syke/ Want to watch instead of listen? Subscribe to our You Tube channel - https://youtube.com/@LeedsBusinessPodcast. DON'T FORGET THE LEEDS BUSINESS PODCAST ‘FAIR DEAL’ My half of the agreement; Every week I bring you inspiring Leeds Business people FOR FREE. Your half of the deal has two simple steps; 1) Share this episode with just ONE person who you think will get value from it 2) Post a review of the show here SOCIAL MEDIA Follow us on; LinkedIn - a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/leeds-business-podcast/" rel="noopener noreferrer"...