Emotion, passion and inspiration

Dayyaan Hasnain - Managing director at DSE Natural Stone

The kitchen is the place where a lot of time is spent. This is where it happens if you ask me: dining together, having good conversations, having drinks with family or friends, sharing emotions and creating memories... This makes the kitchen so much more than just a space for preparing food. It deserves to be decorated with attention, experience and feeling. By people who have been truly inspired. And that's where we as the kitchen industry have an important role to play. All too often, kitchen products are still offered by function, although I see that more and more showrooms are responding better to feeling and appearance.

Art

I see a parallel with art. In a museum or art gallery, you don't go and look at the beautiful paintings on racks and pull one out every now and then either. No! It's all about the ambiance ... if everything is beautifully displayed, shown with attention, only then can you allow the value and impact of such an art object to assert itself and grow. In the same way, I see natural stone as a form of abstract art. Formed by the earth itself, millions of years old and always unique. If you choose a natural stone worktop, it is a piece of added art to the kitchen.

Emotion, passion and inspiration

I am certain that you can give products, which are initially labeled as functional and may have a somewhat "stuffy" character, the recognition they deserve by adding experience and emotion. And it was precisely with this approach that I embarked on the transformation of our own family business. That, too, runs parallel for me: the family feeling in the company and the family feeling that many people experience in their kitchens. But initiating that change requires the necessary dose of passion, because without passion there is no emotion. So I try to combine my passion for natural stone and entrepreneurship in the best possible way. As a young owner of 27, who took over the business from his parents, I am initiating a change in perspective within the industry. Starting in my own business. So no more small samples or plates put away in a corner, but nicely displayed, in a space with a certain elegance, where people can be inspired. A place where you can get ideas, where you are triggered to look differently. More daring or more subdued. That you walk away and something is set in motion, that is my goal.

Industry-wide

What makes the industry so beautiful is that we are all working with passion for the craft, for what we create. It's in very small things: how we exude it, how we talk about our product, even how we serve the coffee. Inspiration is at the heart of everything we do and how we can make people think differently. I challenge other young people in the industry to stand up and suggest ideas. Let us know how we new it,
can do differently or better. Inspire!