Sam Saad was only a little boy when he visited a building site for the first time, but it’s a day he’ll never forget. As he toddled round in an oversize hard hat grasping his dad’s finger, he gazed in wonderment at the towering scaffold, noisy concrete mixers and piles of bricks. There was something magical about the smell of diesel and cement, and the clatter of heavy machinery. He knew instantly he was going to be a builder.

Some 30 years later, around the turn of the century, Sam led his young sons around a very similar site, smiling when he saw that Nadim and his brother Daniel were as entranced as he’d been. There was no doubt about what their future careers would be.

Today, Director Sam is still at the head of the family business, the DCN Group, while Nadim is Managing Director and Daniel is CFO. “It makes me very proud having my boys working with me, and sharing the same values of craftsmanship that were instilled in me,” Sam tells The CEO Magazine from the company’s head office in the Sydney suburb of Strathfield. “And now they’re creating their own values, as they’re from a new generation with different aspirations and ideas about the future.”

The company has built a number of premium residential blocks, warehouses and office complexes, earning a reputation for attention to detail, integrity and high-spec design. The most recent was The Leonard, a boutique complex of 48 contemporary apartments in Bankstown, advertised as a “thriving, living sanctuary for relaxation, convenience and culture. Delivering aspirational living to all residents.”

“When someone comes along for a viewing and parks their car, if their immediate reaction is, ‘Wow,’ and then, when they go inside, it’s also going to be, ‘Wow,’ if not, ‘Wow, Wow.’”

Not surprisingly, demand for the units was extremely high, and one particular purchaser left a lasting impression on Sam. “We always introduce ourselves to the people…