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Rising to the Challenge

Always on the lookout for new ventures, the dynamic entrepreneur has forged a successful career by facing obstacles and overcoming them

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One thing that has been constant in Lasith Kayakkal’s life is adversity. Rising to the challenge and achieving remarkable feats has thus become second nature for this dynamic go-getter who has never let obstacles stand in the way of his dreams. Born to Mulloli Lakshmanan and Prasanna Kayakkal in 1977 at Kannur, India, Lasith had a normal childhood just like any other kid of his age. After completing his schooling, he did not burden his parents with the college fees and graduated with a degree in Bachelors of Commerce, on his own as he worked as a full-time employee with the Block Board Company. After giving up on his dream of joining the Indian Army on the wishes of his mother, Lasith came to Dubai in 1997 and managed to secure a job in an electrical and mechanical company. After a couple of years, he got a driver license and joined Bukanan Furniture, a Bahrain-based company as a driver.

The early 2000’s was a difficult time for Lasith as he had to deal with the tragic death of his parents and also manage the marriage of his sister. But he persevered and persisted in his life-long goal of making it big. Eventually, things started changing for the better. In 2004, Lasith got married and became a Managing Partner in a furniture factory. From there on, there was no looking back as he has constantly taken on adversity and come out on top solely on the strength of his resolve and conviction. One such successful venture has been Deena Furnitures which he moved to a 28,000 sq ft plot in the Sharjah Industrial area in 2017. In a small span of time, the company has grown to include hundreds of skilled employees, providing the best furniture and interiors to leading hotels in the UAE and Oman. Explaining about the kind of work that Deena Furnitures takes up, Lasith said: “From sofas, tables to other interior works, we cater to five and seven-star hotels in the Gulf countries. Most of our clients are based in Saudi Arabia and Dubai.”

He added that making an impact in the entire industry and in the lives of others is a motivating factor for him. “It all started during my school days. Being part of many associations, I was very passionate about helping the poor,” he said. Lasith said that he loves thinking up fresh solutions and also likes to be challenged and in finding areas to improve constantly.

Always on the lookout for challenging enterprises, Lasith saw that there was a dearth of committed recruiting agencies in the region. Sharing what prompted him to go ahead, he said: “I found a lot of discrepancies in the recruiting agencies functioning here.” After getting his recruiting license, Lasith set about making a change in the industry. Another such venture of his is Defender Security and Cleaning Services, an organisation that specialises in providing security and crowd control facilities at Dubai’s most iconic events and venues. The company specialises in both small and large events, providing a complete end-to-end event service that includes staffing and facility management. To date, the company has successfully completed more that 3,311 tasks in more than 235 projects and have services over 158 satisfied clients. The services that the company provides includes close protection-chaperone services for VVIPs, 24-hour operations centre, crowd control, traffic control, screening solutions, advisory services, risk evaluation, crisis response and access control.

For more information, contact +971 4 266 1888 or email: mail@defendergroup.ae

— ali@khaleejtimes.com