Martin Stepek
I was born and raised in a business-owning family. My father is a first generation Polish immigrant, who founded a very successful electrical retail and repair business in central Scotland. I am one of ten siblings and, at one stage, eight of us were involved in the business.
I first worked in the business during weekends and school holidays on an ad-hoc basis from the age of nine. After obtaining a law degree and post-graduate qualifications, I worked my way around the world for four years before settling into the family business as its first marketing manager, then marketing director and, eventually, deputy managing director. In all, I worked full time in the family business for fifteen years from 1987 until 2002.
My family were founding members of the Centre for Family Enterprise, the first executive education programme for family enterprises in the UK, which I attended for four years.
The story of our family business ends with the business going into receivership. Why? Economic conditions did not help, but nor did we ever really resolve the challenge of how to organise a very large and complex sibling partnership.
After a period for reflection I decided that the experiences of my family should be used to help other family enterprises so I became Chief Executive of the Scottish Family Business Association.
In that role I work with government, advisers, academics, teachers and business support organisations to raise understanding of the importance of good governance, communication and leadership in family enterprises. Joining FBS gave me the opportunity to spread knowledge of best practice in family enterprise governance and help enterprising families to avoid what happened to us.
