Our Origin Story
We met in 2015. At the time, we were a CEO and Value Enhancement Director. Rupert was CEO of Orgvue, an organisation design SaaS platform he had launched in 2011 after founding Concentra Analytics in 2008. Jon was at Inflexion. Our friend Bill (now Ārahi’s Head of Operations) introduced us. After our meeting where Rupert had demoed his product to Jon, we decided to go for a drink.
Little did Bill know, he was uniting two people with a shared, deep-seated passion. We got talking about board meetings and, in particular, board packs. We had similar frustrations about the inefficient and unproductive nature of board meetings. While they should be the pinnacle of corporate standards, we both felt they were anything but. Board meetings got us onto board packs – how they are written and produced and don’t drive necessary actions.
We couldn’t stop. We scribbled our ideas on napkins and beer mats. Bill checked out. Drinks became dinner. Dinner became a nightcap in a nearby hotel – the only place we could find still serving. After one drink, and once the staff realised that neither of us was a paying guest, they suggested we needed to leave. So, Rupert paid for a room (unused other than for Jon to get changed for a meeting the following morning). We talked until the sun came up, putting the world to rights about strategy, board meetings and the vital role that board pack reporting plays in executing strategic goals. It was the beginning of a very productive and deep friendship.
The ideas that poured out of us that night didn’t start to evolve into Ārahi until a few years later. The tipping point was when Jon declined Rupert’s call because he was neck-deep getting a board pack out. This is the moment we realised it was time to stop talking and start doing. When we finally caught up later that day, we agreed: ‘there is a better way. Let’s fix this’.
And so, in 2021, Ārahi was born.
We believe there is a better way. Board packs can delight rather than confuse. We help organisations cut through the noise. We empower them with the tools to refine their value creation plans, have better conversations and stay focused on the path to success.