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Rare & Dear Spreading Reach of EconomyPrinted in The Garden Island, 20 July 1997. The business is the most successful software operation ever on Kaua'i with revenues of close to $600,000 in 1996 and $400,000 in the first quarter of 1997. Owner Ned Dana, 44, chose the business' name, which is definitely not high tech sounding, to reflect his localized business philosophy. "The name Rare & Dear is an acknowledgment of our staff, and what great people they are," Dana said. "It also describes Kaua'i and the kind of people we want to work here." Kaua'i is benefiting from Dana's love of the island and database software savvy. He was in the right place at the right time in the early '70s and was in on the early boom days of personal computing in Silicon Valley with one of today's major software and information management companies. Working without a collage degree, depending on his somewhat self-learned skills in computer programming, he walked into the offices of a start up high tech business known as RSI. He was hired and given employee badge number 17. RSI grew up and became Oracle under the leadership of dynamic businessman Larry Ellison. Today Oracle is the number-two software company, trailing only Bill Gate's Microsoft. So why is Dana here? "I got tired of the hustle and bustle and smog; I had visited Kaua'i and liked the beauty and slower lifestyle," said the personable, soft spoken businessman. "I moved here in the summer of 1988." To get started he sold Oracle stock he held and purchased Run Computer Run, a computer repair and consulting company then based in Kilauea. He grew the business and ended up with an office and store front on Kuhio Highway in Llhu'e. However, Hurricane 'Iniki arrived in September, 1992 and had a profound effect on Dana's business strategy. "After 'Iniki the economy was rotten, it was hard to make a go of it here," Dana said. "I realized we were too dependent on the economy of Kaua'i." Dana stepped back and drew on his unique qualifications as one of the programmers who originally developed key pieces of the heart of Oracle's software. He decided to become an Oracle developer and went to the Mainland to hone his skills. He returned as one of the top 70 Oracle developers. The skills have become the cornerstone of Rare & Dear. Today his staff of 14 is growing and spreading out. "Our dream is to do work here for clients who aren't here," said Dana, "and not be dependent on the Kaua'i economy." To do this Dana, his programmers and support staff are creating customized database software for mid- to large-size firms on Kaua'i, in Honolulu and the Mainland. This kind of programming is timeless and dates back to the days of mainframe computers, when users used TV-screen equipped terminals hooked up by wires to a powerful mainframe computer. Today Oracle software enables programmers to create powerful databases that can be creatively, and reliably, used to pull out select information, keep track of large lists and other data-intensive applications. "Our main focus is to help companies manage their data effectively and efficiently," Dana said. The demand for software programmers that know how to make Oracle's database software work to it optimum is growing. Dana's skills were recognized in June when he was a featured speaker at an international Oracle developers conference in San Diego. At the conference Dana presented a digital slide show residing inside his laptop computer that featured screens from a database created for PMRF, plus scenic slides of Na Pali. Rare & Dear is also bringing new life to the former office and plantation managers house of the now-closed McBryde Sugar Co. At Numila he and his staff are remodeling a wing of the old McBryde office, sharing the spacious 50's looking concrete block buildings with Kaua'i Coffee. Dana lives in the former plantation manager's house at Brydeswood in the rolling hills just south of Kalaheo. He launched Rare & Dear at home until his move last December to Numila. His hand-picked staff shares his enthusiasm for Kaua'i and bring decades of experience with IBM, Tandem and other major technology corporations. Interestingly, he's also drawn a line in the red dirt outside his home and office which he won't cross in developing his software company. The standard is to grow the company here without turning Kaua'i into a fast-paced high tech island community. "We're using the beauty of this place to draw the right people here," Dana said, pointing to a resume from an Oracle developer from Turkey who is on his way here to work. "People have to fit in with our team, we don't want to change the feeling of island," he said. Dana said that students growing up on Kaua'i have a better shot today than they did in the past in becoming successful in software programming and other computer fields with the cost of computers low and the rapid growth of the Internet. He suggests interested students get access to a computer, pick up a book on programming and learn a modem computer language. "A business degree would really help, too, especially for someone considering entrepreneurial work," Dana added. Dana hopes to help out Kaua'i's students in the future with in-house apprenticeships and possibly a workstudy program. |
