Blog

OK, so it's a no-brainer -- if an Aboriginal computer maker like Drum can be competitive in quality, price, and service, of course most Aboriginal computer buyers will choose Drum. But what about the rest of the world? In Canada, the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business has been working for almost 15 years to promote Aboriginal businesses. The CCAB's Progressive Aboriginal Relations ("PAR") Program in particular has helped position Aboriginally-controlled businesses to win contracts with major Canadian-based corporations. Among the companies that have earned PAR's Gold status -- these are businesses with a proven, long-term committment to doing business whenever possible with Aboriginal suppliers and partners -- over $600 million was spent on goods & services provided by Aboriginal companies in 2008. PAR Gold member Syncrude has spent over $100 million a year on Aboriginal contracts for each of the past five years -- since 1992 Syncrude's expenditures with Aboriginal firms has exceeded $1.2 billion. The general point is that these corporations (see the list at the end of this blog) all have formal Aboriginal procurement programs (so do many others that not part of the PAR program). All of them, regardless of their business focus, rely heavily on information technologies generally, and computers in particular, to operate. And the simple fact is that, until Drum, no Aboriginal company has been able to offer them "Aboriginal computers" to meet their shifting computing needs. As the world -- and industry -- comes to increasingly rely on highly mobile computing technologies, these companies will begin to look for suppliers of precisely the sorts of computers that are our sweet spot -- netbooks, thin notebooks, and touchscreen tablets. Bottom line for Drum? The opportunity to forge profitable relations with major corporations is just as strong as it is with Indian Country.

PAR Gold members include:

Alberta Pacific Forest Industries, BMO Financial, Cameco, Canada Post, Diavik Diamond Mines, ESS Support Services, Higgins International, IBM Canada, Manitoba Lotteries, Place Louis Riel, Savanna Energy Services, Sodexo Canada, Syncrude Canada, Xerox Canada

People ask us all the time, "how can you compete against the big boys?" The assumption seems to be that, because Drum is a new company, we can't create computers that are competitive in price and quality with the likes of Dell, Acer, and HP. Actually, to coin a phrase, yes we can! We design our devices right here in North America, then work with carefully selected manufacturing partners in China and Taiwan, overseeing the assembly of our models. Just like the industry giants. It's amazing to me how many people in the U.S. and Canada are shocked to learn that Macs and iPads are made in Taiwan, Dells and HPs in China. In fact Drum's Asian manufacturers also make computers for the established brands. So we're confident that our computers will always match up, feature-for-feature, with those of the major players. Ditto quality. And at prices that are highly competitive. We can pull this off because we're lean, decentralized, and totally focused on developing and selling modern, lightweight, highly mobile computers. No heavy bloated laptops. No clunky desktops. So, add all that up, and why on earth would a First Nation administrator, a tribal school principal, a national First Nation or Indian organization -- or for that matter, anyone in Indian Country -- buy a computer from anybody but Drum, the world's only Native-controlled computer maker?

It's a strange world. Here we are, the world's first Aboriginally-controlled computer company. Proudly based in North America. With a close working relationship to The Indigenous Learning Company, the only fully professional, web-based, Aboriginally-controlled educational publishing company on the planet. And where are we being asked to find a way to get reasonably priced, netbook-centric educational solutions to indigenous students? British Columbia? Montana? Ontario? Nope. Try South Africa and Tanzania and Venezuela and Panama. While we're happy to see what we can do in these countries, the fact is that it makes far more sense - on every level - to start at home. Drum, with its ability to leverage the latest in low-cost, high-value mobile technologies is able to create small, lightweight, robust mini-notebooks that go far beyond most of the capabilities of well-intentioned pioneers like One Laptop Per Child. Thanks to its close relationship with ILC, it's able to couple these outstanding computers with customized learning apps that reflect the cultures and contributions of Aboriginal peoples (for example, check out these Grade One 'webstories'). And bonus! We're a company, intent on creating positive economic spinoffs for our shareholders and our communities. This means 21st century jobs for Native North Americans, and focused, applied R&D that searches out new and innovative ways to ensure that no one - including Aboriginal Canadians and Native Americans - is left on the wrong side of the Digital Divide. 

Shaen "Bub " Patience (seriously, that's his name) has been an Alternate Education teacher since 1974. Over the past 11 years he has run a funky storefront operation called Lakeside Learning Centre, for young people who had drifted away from "regular" high school, but eventually decided they wanted to roll up their sleeves and get a diploma. I know Bub - he and I served for several years together on the board of the Kaslo Jazz Festival (cited by no less a cultural source than USA Today as one of the ten best outdoor music festivals in North America - check it out at kaslojazzfest.com). And I know Lakseside, the school happens to be located in the same building as Drum's HQ. Bub's a bright, opinionated, eternally optomistic sort of guy, with a serious commitment to helping kids succeed. And succeed they have, the students at Lakeside. In 11 years of operating, only 11 Lakeside kids have failed to graduate - an astonishingly positive number for any school, let alone an alternate school like Lakeside. So what's the deal? The answer starts and finishes with Bub, and includes Dan Miles, the progressive principal of JV Humphries, the "normal" school Lakeside is affiliated with, dedicated, caring staff, and a bunch of young people who are determined to get an education, in some cases despite daunting odds. It's really pretty inspiring stuff. Every time I walk across the hall and into the school, I can't help but think how cool it would be if every Lakeside student had a wireless Drum, one they could take home with them at the end of the day (only a handful of students have access to a home computer). Some of the photos here on the Drum website at the moment (I'm writing this on January 5th) feature Lakeside students with a Drum 211 - look at their faces, you tell me what the impact of a scenario like that is likely to be. At the end of the day though, technology's just a toolset. It is with computers as it is with teachers - a few good ones make all the difference. And Bub's a good one.

I could go on and on about all the things I'm looking forward to in the coming year. But I'll simply say this: I'm very excited about Drum's future. Let me wish you & yours a healthy, safe, happy, and prosperous 2010. I look forward to you all becoming Drummers in the new year!

Ben Franklin was one well-organized dude. No matter who we are or what we do, most of us stumble though life blissfully unaware of - or apparently un-curious about - why we're here in the first place. This, of course, is crazy. We are here after all, so why not figure out why on earth for? Since these are tumultuous times we live in, think of it in military terms. Any general worth his or her salt can tell you that it's impossible to win a war unless your army's efforts are guided by a well-understood strategy. How else will your soldiers know whether they're winning or losing (this may be the single most obvious problem with the current situation in Afghanistan). In the absence of a strategy, troops patrol, they engage the enemy, they patrol, they engage the enemy, on and on with no apparent end, no sense of progress of lack thereof, just a nagging sense of overall futility. Sound familiar?

Most of us live lives that are purely tactical - we stumble from challenge to challenge (spiced up by the occasional opportunity), and deal with each of them as they appear, largely unguided by an overarching sense of strategy, some clear internal understanding of who we are and what we intend to accomplish. Ben Franklin understood the importance of this, and that undertanding, and his willingness to act upon that understanding, goes a long ways towards explaining his extraordinarily long list of incredible accomplishments.

I'm certainly no Ben Franklin. But I do my best to be clear about why I get up in the morning, and as honest as possible about my accomplishments (or, more often, the depressing lack thereof) at the end of the day. I always keep this in mind when people ask me (and they ask me this all the time) why I think a little startup company like Drum can hope to succeed when going up against well-entrenched industry giants. My answer's usually the same: because we have a clear strategy, because we are focused on tackling old problems in new ways.

Maybe Powerful Goodness has a role to play in there somewhere, too...