Doing more with less - rethinking Asset Management

By Edward Guy, Managing Director – Rationale

We’re naturally drawn to the new and shiny. But the truth is, most of the infrastructure New Zealand will rely on in the next 30 years is already here.

The challenge ahead isn’t about impressive new projects, it’s about managing the assets we already have, renewing them at the right time, and making sure they continue to serve communities well into the future. It’s not always glamorous work, but it’s work that is integral to our infrastructure.

Back in 1996, an amendment to the Local Government Act gave us a leap forward in asset management innovation. Councils were suddenly building asset registers, valuing assets properly, funding depreciation, and producing their first Asset Management Plans. That momentum carried us for 15 years, and then, somewhere along the way, innovation slowed.

The frameworks are still there, particularly in local government, but the urgency has faded. Political cycles and affordability debates mean renewals are often pushed back. The result - we’re living off the investments of the past without putting enough aside to keep them working into the future.

The Infrastructure Commission’s recent report on Asset Management, Taking Care of Tomorrow Today, shows local government isn’t alone in this. It paints a national picture of asset management that ranges from excellent in places to worryingly immature in others. Local government generally performs well thanks to mandated long-term planning, external audits, and public accountability.

Central government, by contrast, has no consistent asset management requirements, no dedicated oversight, and no obligation to publish performance data. The report’s message is simple: we can and must do better.

At Rationale, we’ve seen firsthand what’s possible when asset management is treated as a strategic discipline rather than a compliance exercise. Working with the three councils on the West Coast, we combined a Programme Business Case with an Activity Management Plan for transport assets. That shift - bringing business case thinking and asset planning together, lifted performance from the back of the pack to the head of the class. The work didn’t stop there, the model has evolved as new challenges have emerged, with continuous improvement built into the process.

Our support for the Road Efficiency Group (REG) is another example. We’ve helped develop national tools for consistent data collection, transparent performance reporting, and defining the core competencies councils need to plan and deliver well. These kinds of initiatives build trust in investment decisions - not just between agencies, but with the communities they serve.

Water reform is the next big test. With the new economic regulator in place, all water providers, whether new council-controlled organisations or in-house units, will be held to higher asset and financial management standards. It’s an opportunity to design better systems from the ground up, with longer-term thinking, less political short-termism, and greater transparency.

For us at Rationale, the lesson in all this is simple. Asset management isn’t just about ‘what’ we invest in — it’s about ‘how’ we do it, and ‘why’ we make those choices. It’s about thinking like a business, telling the story better, and using integrated, evidence-based approaches that weigh alternatives and demonstrate value for money. It’s about building teams with the right skills and keeping asset management alive as a continuous process, not something that gets dusted off every few years.

Asset Management is not just about valuations and registers, doing it properly involves a wide range of skills, that work as an ecosystem with asset management at the core. At the same time, to fully close the loop, we need to get better at understanding, tracking and measuring the benefits of investment in our assets – and telling this story to our communities.

At the end of the day, we haven’t got endless funds. As Ernest Rutherford famously put it, “We haven’t the money, so we’ve got to think.” If we put asset management at the centre of our decisions, use the tools available, and keep innovating, we can make the most of what we already have — and hand it on in better shape than we found it.

BACK