Rationale turns 25!!!
On the 6th of September 2024, Rationale is celebrating its 25th birthday!
As anyone who has been in business for a while can understand, over the last 25 years Rationale has been through many twists and turns and has seen a significant amount of change in the industry we work in.
As Rationale marks a quarter-century milestone, we want to take a moment to reflect on the journey that began when Edward Guy founded the company in Queenstown back in 1999.
Growing from an original base in Arrowtown, we now have an office in Wellington and a presence in Dunedin.
From the very start we have had an unshakeable focus on creating value for our clients and developing Rationale as a place that has a work culture that is second to none. These are the foundations upon which we have built our business and they continue to resonate through all the work we do.
The early years (1999 – 2002)
Founder of Rationale, Edward Guy, initially started his career as an infrastructure analyst, crunching numbers for Works Consultancy, followed by two years at Queenstown Lakes District Council as Roading Manager. He then moved back up north and worked with Beca while living at Muriwai Beach. However, as a keen skier, Edward couldn’t resist the call to the hills, so packed up, and headed back to Queenstown, where he’s called home for 25 years.
He founded Rationale in 1999 and began working with QLDC to help them deliver their Asset Management Plans, having had a previous working relationship with the council. Ed had a knack for taking big data sets, doing the analytics, solving problems and telling the story.
The Local Government Amendment Act 1996 had put a number of requirements on local councils, including the need to fund depreciation on assets, develop robust asset management plans and developing balanced budgets. This was a space that came naturally to Ed and he was able to bridge the space between infrastructure and finance, carving out a niche for Rationale.
As Ed puts it, things snowballed from there, both professionally and personally. “The work kept coming and growing in complexity, and three months after founding Rationale, I met my future wife, Lisa.” Ed and Lisa have now been married for 21 years and have three daughters who have grown up in the Queenstown Lakes region.
Ed admits that in the early years he probably had the work/life balance a little more weighted to the ‘life’ side of things. “I was young, having a good time enjoying all the outdoor adventures that Queenstown has on offer. I genuinely didn’t have a plan – it was just one foot in front of the other. Early on I was told ‘you’re only as good as your last job’ and that was my approach to the business – just make sure Rationale was known for delivering high quality work for our clients.”
The introduction of the Local Government Act 2002 began a significant shift in local government, which demanded an increased capability and maturity, particularly for long-term planning and the funding and financing of infrastructure.
This required a longer-term view of investment and cost modelling across councils as a whole, as opposed to just infrastructure. This was a big shift and added significant complexity to how local government planned ahead. This was a step change for Rationale as well, one which saw a significant increase in demand for our services.
This prompted Rationale to focus on innovating alongside our client organisations, bringing their team members along for the ride, front-footing conversations with elected members and ensuring everyone learned from the process so that evidence-based decisions could be made.
As the business grew and the demand for Rationale’s services increased, Ed needed to bring in some support.
Late in 2002, Rationale posted its first ever job advertisement and the first applicant was Tom Lucas. It became obvious to Ed that Tom would be the perfect candidate to become Rationale’s first official employee.
As Ed recalls, “Tom’s CV was the first one to come in, he was originally a farm boy from Glenorchy, having grown up on Wyuna Station, and had a serious brain on his shoulders. He was the ideal candidate. Joining forces with Tom was the best business decision I’ve ever made.”
Prior to joining Rationale, Tom spent time improving Australian beer production as a graduate process engineer and then moved onto project planning large IT data centre and office fit out jobs in Europe. He’s still here at Rationale as a Principal Advisor, Director and Shareholder.
Expansion and Evolution (2003 – 2012)
With Tom on board, Rationale needed an official location, so on Tom’s first day we opened our first office in Arrowtown at the iconic Oddfellows Lodge on Buckingham Street. This building, built in 1862, had once been the chambers for the Arrowtown Borough Council and was not without its quirks. “That was a classic office, it had the original, quite rotten, native beech flooring that we were occasionally falling through. It also took quite a bit of work to keep it warm in winter – it’s amazing to think we were in there for ten years” says Ed.
The opening of the original Arrowtown office marked a significant milestone for Ed and Tom. Tom remembers not everyone saw an office in Arrowtown as a good idea. “People thought we were crazy, back then Arrowtown was almost a two-horse town, with a pub and a bakery. We were the first professional service provider in the town since the gold rush and people couldn’t understand why we would want to have an office ‘out there’. Fast forward a couple of decades and we’re surrounded by architects, analysts, economists and all sorts!”
As the team grew over this decade, so did our offering of services to more local authorities, expanding beyond number crunching to a driven and intelligent team with an ever-increasing range of technical skills.
Throughout this time, Rationale maintained its focus on ensuring all work done delivered value to our clients, and we began to solidify the team culture that is now embedded across the business.
Growth, Innovation and Decision-Making (2013 – Present Day)
In 2013, due to continued growth (and seismic strength issues with Oddfellows Lodge) Rationale relocated to a larger office in Arrowtown’s Arrow Lane, where the Arrowtown division remains today.
This period also marked a significant change in how we approach decision-making. Rationale’s use of the approaches such as Investment Logic Mapping and the Better Business Case (BBC) framework marked the beginning of improving investment decision making.
These tools were largely being used by central government at the time, but Rationale saw the value they would bring to the challenges that were being faced by local government, particularly in terms of coordinating complex and evidence-based decisions.
The demands on local government were becoming increasingly complicated, with a wide range of factors needing to be taken into account when making investment decisions. Innovation was required by all parties, and always up for a challenge, we once again rolled our sleeves up.
Rationale began to innovate our approach to decision making for clients. Seeing deficiencies with how options were developed, integrated and evaluated, we began to develop our own bespoke approaches to optioneering and analysis.
Using an integrated approach to investment management, Rationale began working on larger, more complex projects that brought together a wide range of technical specialists to deliver significant projects for our clients. We also moved into a wider range of areas, including masterplanning, spatial planning, organisational design, placemaking and regulatory functions.
This integrated approach resulted in enduring success stories for our clients, including the Queenstown Town Centre Masterplan, The Cromwell Eye to the Future Masterplan, Mackenzie Spatial Plans and District Plan Review and Tauranga’s Te Manawataki o Te Papa.
Throughout this period Rationale began working with a wider range of clients across the country, from the far north to the deep south, as well as increasingly with central government.
In 2017, Rationale once again expanded its footprint by opening our Wellington office, marking our commitment to having a permanent presence in the capital and furthering the caliber of talent and expertise we are able to provide.
Our Values
Rationale has never swayed from its philosophy of viewing work/life balance as a key part of our success. We often get together throughout the year to celebrate successes, share adventures, or socialise outside work. Many of us have children and we believe that having quality time to help nurture them is as important as the work we do professionally.
Our team come from a range of backgrounds and technical specialties, but with the common trait of leading active and challenging lives, both inside and outside work. We believe people who can dig deep to climb hills, take part in in endurance races or teach their kids to ski or play sport can also bring their determination and drive to helping solve the problems of our clients.
We know that people are our biggest asset. Shared values and strong teamwork are some of the foundations of our success. We believe in being human, in building relationships, not networks, and in treating each other as people, not job titles.
Rationale is a value-based organisation, and this has been central to our longevity and success. These values, first thought up by Ed and Tom fifteen years ago, while sitting under a tree in Ed’s garden, have guided how we operate as a team, and how we approach all our work with our clients.
Integrity – Integrity is our key value and our moral compass. It has been the foundation upon which we have built our approach. For us integrity is simple – we align what we think, say and do with integrity. We strive to be fair, professional, impartial, responsible, trustworthy and authentic.
Whānau – The Rationale team is like whanau. We look after our employees and their families and loved ones. We regularly bring the wider Rationale family together to celebrate our achievements, both in and out of work. At the same time, we build strong, enduring and close relationships with our clients and client organisations.
Balance – Ensuring balance is critical. We know the work we do can be challenging and the focus on balance means we can approach complicated projects as a united front, using everyone’s skills where they are needed. Likewise, we expect everyone in the Rationale family to have a healthy work-life balance and will seek to make changes if we identify a lack of balance.
Challenge – Challenge is important to us, both personally and professionally – we thrive on doing hard stuff. We know that we are only as good as our last job and take the approach that nothing is too hard. Our Arrowtown, Dunedin and Wellington locations have allowed us to attract a highly talented team who are as passionate about taking on challenges inside the office as they are in their personal lives.
Success – We celebrate success in all aspects of our lives and those of our clients. We strive for success and deliver it for our clients and communities.
Looking ahead
Recently, there has been considerable change across both central and local government. Local government is facing considerable uncertainty and change. While change is a constant, it requires extra resources from councils, who are in an already constrained fiscal environment.
While some may see changes such as water reform, regional deals, ageing infrastructure and changes to the RMA as challenges (and they most certainly are), our approach has always been to see any challenge as an opportunity in disguise.
Much in the same way as the Local Government Amendment Act 1996 and the Local Government Act in 2002 were step changes for our industry, we are now at a new watershed moment which presents an opportunity to reimagine the relationship between local and central government.
We see a significant opportunity in bridging that gap to ensure investment is done in an integrated and coordinated way, with a longer-term horizon that outlives election cycles.
This offers a once in a generation chance to look at how we reimagine infrastructure planning, funding and provision, at the same time providing for housing and economic growth.
We need to think big and think differently. Innovation, integration, efficiency and effective decision making will be paramount in navigating the complexities of future infrastructure challenges. The stuff Rationale thrives on – the hard stuff.
As Rationale looks ahead to the next 25 years and beyond, we remain steadfast in our commitment to improve places for people by helping organisations create innovative solutions and make great investment decisions. It’s about creating a better world by improving the places we live, work and play.
To all the clients we have worked with over the past quarter of a century – we thank you all for being a part of our journey, quite simply, we couldn’t have done it without you.
Finally, to the Rationale whanau, our team members both past and present, you are the beating heart of this organisation and our biggest asset – keep being awesome and let’s continue to make the hard stuff fun!
Ngā mihi nui
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