She Was Told She Was Their Best Performing MD — But She Didn't Fit In. So She Built Her Own Agency: Rowan Morrison of We Are Rationale

In this episode of Scale HER Up, I'm joined by Rowan Morrison — co-MD and co-founder of We Are Rationale (or Rationale, day-to-day), a brand agency based in Edinburgh specialising in regulated markets — financial services, healthcare, health tech, med tech. They're also a B Corp, which means values-driven impact isn't an afterthought. It's built in.

Rowan set up Rationale with her co-founder Sven Clouston six months before the pandemic. She is a Women's Enterprise Scotland ambassador and a member of the 93% Club — and this conversation goes into both.

She dropped out of school. She was the first in her family to go to university. Entrepreneurship wasn't something she saw people like her do. She came up through marketing, landed in a senior role she didn't ask for, was dragged into it by a mentor who saw something she didn't, and eventually broke out to set up something of her own.

She was also told by a previous CEO, in what was apparently intended as a pep talk, that she was probably his best performing MD — but that she didn't fit in. She was delighted.

We cover:

• What Rationale does: brand and creative strategy in regulated markets, emotional connection even in B2B and insurance
• Setting up six months before the pandemic and growing steadily through it
• How a female mentor saw something in Rowan before she saw it in herself — and dragged her into leadership kicking and screaming
• Dr. Martens at board meetings, challenging authority, and not being anyone else's version of a managing director
• The 93% Club: 93% of the UK went to state school, but a very small percentage own the wealth or run the businesses — and what that means in Edinburgh specifically
• Hiring for diversity of thought: why she wants people in her team who take things in directions she wouldn't have
• AI: where it's useful, where it's not, and why using AI to do your creative work is "feeding the lion that will eat you"
• Being proud of yourself as a mum and a business owner — and her sons telling her they're proud of her
• The David Bowie quote that sums up her philosophy

Quote of the episode: "You don't ever have to be someone else's version of who you are." — Rowan Morrison