We excel as trusted project partners and mentors who can bolster an organisation’s existing capability. Much of our work sits in the formative stage of projects where there are challenges around scope, strategy and how to engage the right services. We typically play a leadership role where we draw on our experience of what we’ve seen work and not work elsewhere to help our clients understand what they need, and how to get the most out of a multi-disciplined team.
At any point in time, Rationale is actively working on more than 50 individual projects for up to 30 business units or departments within over a dozen client organisations.
Since 1999, we have built a broad and deep project portfolio. We build on our learnings and successes to continuously innovate and improve. We are proud of the results we have achieved with our clients and the trusting relationships we have formed. Here is a selection (of many) examples grouped under our service areas:
Business Cases
Queenstown Town Centre Masterplan
Rationale played a critical role in the development of the Queenstown Town Centre Masterplan and its supporting business cases.
This included establishing the programme, capturing an integrated vision, defining the outcomes and workstreams, supporting the procurement and engaging key stakeholders. This was followed by management of the business case development for the overall programme and the arterial upgrades, public and passenger transport, parking and council office development.
Rationale’s role in this process was critical as we supported QLDC in ensuring that each party was contributing proactively to ensure ambitious deadlines were met and that stakeholders were well informed of progress.
Cromwell Masterplan
As a trusted advisor to Central Otago District Council, Rationale has worked with key stakeholders to develop a Masterplan programme that will define the form and function of wider Cromwell for the next 30 years.
This programme includes the development of a number of project workstreams, including a spatial framework for the town, development of community facilities and
improvement of the town centre.
Rationale will continue to lead this programme in partnership with CODC.
This will include guiding CODC through procuring the services to assess the situation, developing options and informing business cases that will define what solutions will be delivered in each areas.
Tauranga Civic Space Options Business Case
Rationale was engaged by Tauranga City Council to develop a Civic Space Options Programme Business Case.
The Tauranga Civic Space Options Project began in July 2015, following the discovery of toxic mould in Tauranga City Council’s Willow Street buildings in November 2014. Early work established that there was no quick fix therefore Council required a long term solution to its building issues at the same time as owning the largest central city site. This provided the ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity to create a civic heart (or civic precinct).
Edward Guy led the development of this business case. This included guiding the team through the Better Business Case process, facilitating decision making processes and coordinating the work of supporting consultants and contractors on behalf of the Council.
On 6 September 2016 Council resolved to work with private sector to deliver a new $23 million civic administration building for Council to lease on 91 Willow Street or Durham St site, with surrounding open space investments, and to develop detailed business cases for a new library and museum. This development formed part of a significant Heart of the City Programme.
Clyde Commercial Precinct Revitalisation
Rationale partnered with Central Otago District Council staff, Clyde local residents and business operators to identify improvement opportunities for the Clyde Commercial Precinct.
The focus was on how to use public spaces to enhance experiences and support growth while retaining heritage and charm.
Rationale worked with LandLAB to use a Better Business Case approach to developing, evaluating and shortlisting improvement programme options.
The process was well supported by the community and a number of proposed improvements are currently being discussed with the community. These improvements have been factored into the 10-year plan and after public feedback, may be implemented over the next ten years.
Housing Infrastructure Fund Detailed Business Cases
Rationale has led the development of highly successful Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF) business cases, including six of the nine successful applications across New Zealand.
Three of the successful applications were in the Queenstown Lakes District and Rationale has led the development of these cases including the stakeholder coordination, the optioneering and evaluation and the development of implementation strategies.
Rationale has also led the development of the successful HIF applications in Tauranga. Similar to our work in Queenstown, we have recently progressed these to Detailed Business Case stage through managing the stakeholder coordination, the optioneering and evaluation, and the development of implementation strategies.
Northland Transportation Alliance
The Northland Transportation Alliance is a collaborative arrangement between the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) and the councils of Northland: Far North District Council, Kaipara District Council, Northland Regional Council and Whangarei District Council. It is a leading example in terms of the scale and scope of collaboration.
NZTA and the councils engaged Rationale to facilitate the development of a business case to explore options for improving transportation outcomes in Northland.
After successfully delivering a business case with agreed preferred option and strong stakeholder support, Neil Cook of Rationale was approached to act as the Interim Alliance Manager. In this role Neil led the establishment of the Alliance, managed liaison with stakeholders and elected representatives and made sure that the momentum built to establish the alliance was maintained.
Neil’s leadership played a large role in directing the efforts to form and operationalise the alliance. The Northland Transportation Alliance came about through the combined efforts of the councils of Northland and the NZTA. Clear, consistent and engaged leadership at the highest levels was critical to providing direction to the officers tasked with delivery.
It was equally critical that information provided to elected representatives was presented in a way that let them understand and deal with inherent uncertainty and the associated risk profile of the proposals. The business case approach enabled this to happen in a consistent, structured way. Appropriate reviews, both independent and internal, provide further assurance for decision-makers.
Policy and Strategy
Economic Development Strategy and Initiatives
Rationale has recently worked with Central Otago District Council and Thames Coromandel District Council to develop their Economic Development Strategies and supporting initiatives.
Our work focuses on using a collaborative process to develop the vision and priorities while using learnings, benchmarking and options analysis to identify the best mix of value-driven, achievable initiatives.
It is critical for a council to position itself well to be able to deliver on its objectives, make use of opportunities and meet community expectations.
We encourage councils to consider what they can control, influence, or have a concern in. This clarity helps to guide the allocation of resources and investment.
3 Waters Strategies - CODC, QLDC
A 3 Waters Strategy provides the principles, priorities and planning assumptions that underpin decisions in all areas of long-term water, wastewater and stormwater management. This provides direction for the 3 Waters Asset Management Plans, balances the priorities for the district while managing risk, and integrates financial management over the life‐cycle of the assets.
Efficiency and effectiveness reviews
Rationale’s leaders are particularly capable as trusted advisors to senior organisational leaders.
For this reason, we often support councils through strategic reviews and help them to understand what is required and how it can be done.
Rationale has supported a number of councils in reviewing the cost effectiveness of current arrangements for meeting community needs for good quality infrastructure, local public services and local regulation.
Through this process, Rationale has worked alongside clients to produce strategies and plans that address any gaps, in addition to helping councils procure and coordinate external support.
This includes:
infrastructure strategies
service delivery change and transition plans.
Organisational improvement projects
An organisation that is receptive to change is an organisation that is capable of progress.
By bringing an objective and an independent view to how your organisation operates and how your people perform, we can offer insights into opportunities for improvement. We have a team of seasoned executives who can blend a highly consultative review process with deep analysis and proactive change management.
Our team hasn’t simply reviewed other client organisations, they have personally managed large-scale reviews and changes within their own organisations, which means you can have confidence in the practicality of our advice.
Our team are currently working on a number of organisational improvement projects in private and public organisations. While we don’t always want to single out these projects, we can say that our team members have supported the following organisations in their desire to change and improve:
Queenstown Lakes District Council
Hastings District Council
A number of other district councils
Fiji Roads
Queensland Rail
Brisbane Airport Corporation
The Australian Defence Force.
Communications Strategy and Initiatives
Presenting a clear and compelling story is a critical part of delivering a successful project or programme. In reality, your organisation cannot succeed without it.
Rationale has significant capability in communications strategy and development of communications initiatives.
Led by our Senior Advisor, Ben Smith, we work with our clients to develop strategies and products that shape a clear and attractive story around their major initiatives. In particular, we excel at taking a complex situation and forming an intuitive and compelling story to explain it.
Critically, we also ensure you understand the needs of your stakeholders, engage them effectively and provide real opportunities to build ownership in your project development and delivery.
Road Maintenance Collaborations - Road Efficiency Group, NZ Transport Agency, Multiple TLAs
Rationale is providing facilitated workshops, analysis and Better Business Case developments to numerous roading collaboration initiatives throughout NZ. This involves approximately 50 district councils along with respective regional councils and NZ Transport Agency offices.
The collaboration project forms one of three Road Efficiency Group work streams aimed at implementing the recommendations of the NZ Transport Agency Maintenance & Operations Review and the Road Maintenance Task Force.
Affordable housing policy - QLDC
The Queenstown Lakes District community recognised that access to affordable housing is very important to a range of community outcomes related to sustainable growth, economic strength and diversity, community safety, health and inclusiveness. The Housing Our People in our Environment (HOPE) strategy responded to the growing gap between incomes and rental or mortgage costs that was preventing many residents from renting or owning homes.
Rationale provided an analysis of the current and future demand for affordable housing to determine the number of dwellings the affordable housing scheme needed to provide through ownership and rental schemes.
Economic and Financial
Development Contribution modelling - CODC, DCC, Invercargill City Council, QLDC, Waitaki DC
Establishing development contributions to fairly fund infrastructure growth involves the modelling of complex factors relating to demand projections and asset valuations across a wide range of infrastructure classes. Our approach has been validated over time and across a range of clients, each with varying policies and demands. Rationale has also provided, on behalf of its clients, submissions on amendments to the development contributions component of the Local Government Act.
Long Term Financial forecasting - QLDC
QLDC have engaged Rationale to provide long-term financial forecasting as a critical component of their financial management practices in the 3 yearly planning cycles since 2001. Rationale has developed an evolving, realistic forecast model of revenues and expenditures to project future cash flows. It quantifies potential revenue shortfalls and identifies increased liabilities well into the future. This provides the basis for annual and long-term budgeting and allows the evaluation of various funding and expenditure scenarios.
Irrigation Economic and Commercial Investigation - Manuherikia Catchment Water Strategy Group
The Manuherikia Catchment Water Strategy Group was formed to identify the most cost effective, efficient and sustainable strategies for irrigation and water users in the Manuherikia Catchment while meeting the community’s long-term goals (increasing prosperity and well-being within the region and encouraging a sustainable relationship with the land).
Rationale has been engaged to perform the economic and commercial investigations that are key elements within the feasibility study. We are working with our collaborative partner Compass Agribusiness Management on this project.
Earthquake Prone Building Evaluation - Multiple Southern Councils
Rationale was engaged by the councils of Central Otago, Clutha, Dunedin City, Gore, Invercargill, Timaru, Waimate, Waitaki, Mackenzie, and Southland to develop a high-level evidence-based model illustrating the potential economic impact any change in the Building Act would have on building owners (including councils). The model incorporated data from councils, building owners and engineers along with QV data to estimate the number of earthquake prone buildings and the likely quantity and cost of building assessments and strengthening work. This project was later extended to include six North Island councils.
Irrigation Financial Model - North Otago Irrigation Company
A financial model to indicate the impacts of various funding options for the development of this fully consented 20,000 Ha scheme. Rationale designed a model to test numerous scenarios across a range of variables – capital investment, timing, uptake, proportion of equity provided by shareholders, operating costs, renewals forecasts, interest rates, etc. The model introduced a new charge to create a reserve account to equitably fund future renewals work as assets deteriorate into the future.
The resulting report summarised the output for the base case scenario with fees and charges for each grouping of shareholders in line with existing philosophies.
Ratings models - CODC, QLDC
Council operations and investments must be funded through rating frameworks that place equitable demands on the various categories of ratepayers and reflect the costs and benefits being derived. Rationale has developed rating models that balance the demands on residential and commercial ratepayers to meet the community’s funding and investment strategies.
Asset Management
Asset Valuations - CODC, QLDC
This provides the cornerstone of asset management plan work by developing, maintaining and improving asset registers for water, wastewater, stormwater, roading, landfill, transfer station and other public infrastructure. The accurate valuation and depreciation modelling for these assets provides the basis for many other asset/activity management tasks. Rationale performs similar work for private asset owners such as irrigation companies and sub-division body corporates.
Asset / Activity Management Plans - QLDC, CODC, Waitaki DC, Bendemeer Estate, Otago Southland Waste Services, and others
Rationale is proud to have worked with clients to develop asset or activity management plans for roading and 3 waters infrastructure. Our focus has been to provide customer-led AMPs that deliver the organisation's levels of service goals through prudent operation and investment in their existing and projected infrastructure. This draws together all elements of organisation policy and strategy, asset condition and life-cycle performance, risk management, and financial modelling.
One Network Road Classification (ONRC) Performance Measures - Road Efficiency Group
Rationale has facilitated the development of customer and technical performance measures by running a series of ONRC workshops throughout NZ. These measures will be implemented across the common road classifications that have been established by the Road Efficiency Group.
Population Growth Projections - CODC, DCC, QLDC, Waitaki DC, cluster of Thames Coromandel DC, Hauraki DC, Matamata Piako DC.
Growth projections are the heart of sound planning and policy decision making for councils. The Rationale approach has been refined over more than 12 years and has been proven in some of the country’s highest growth areas.
Engineering and Design
Water and Wastewater Modelling - CODC, QLDC
Complementing our 3 Waters strategy development, Rationale carries out ongoing modelling projects to provide capacity assessments and network performance evaluations.
3 Waters Master Planning - CODC, QLDC
Rationale’s work on master planning and developing capital investment programmes ensures levels of service are delivered while meeting projected growth in a sustainable manner.
Glenorchy Wastewater Network Design - QLDC
Rationale provided a preliminary wastewater network design to minimise whole-of-life operation and capital costs by maximising gravity reticulation.
McChesney/McMillan Road Upgrades and pavement rehabilitations - QLDC
Working with our collaborative partner AECOM, we project managed this Arthurs Point urban upgrade in close cooperation with QLDC and the contractor (The Roading Company). Outstanding results were delivered on time, within budget and with minimal disruption to the community.
Community
Arrowtown Mahu Whenua Gateway project
Rationale partnered with the Arrowtown Promotion and Business Association to consider the ways in which Arrowtown can better connect to the breathtaking backdrop of hills and mountains, which are part of a 53,000 hectare conservation park covenanted with the Queen Elizabeth II National Trust in 2015.
Through a highly collaborative process with a wide range of stakeholders, Rationale developed a business case that outlined how to best make use of the opportunity the Mahu Whenua provides.
Through applying the better business case process, Rationale worked with the stakeholders to identify a preferred option that is highly supported by the community and stakeholders.
The APBA are now looking to take this option to next stage through securing funding for detailed planning and implementation.
Arrowtown Community and Sports Centre Feasibility Study
As active members of the Arrowtown community we proudly provided our services on a not-for-profit basis to develop a feasibility study in support of this exciting project.