About Us
We help businesses understand how work actually happens — and improve how it performs.
The Latin verb “ēmendō” means to improve, correct, revise, or remedy.
That’s where our name comes from, and it reflects how we approach our work.
What we do
We focus on how people, systems, and decisions interact in practice.
Because work doesn’t always follow what’s written down.
It is shaped by context — demand, resources, clarity, coordination, and environment. These conditions influence how decisions are made day-to-day, and ultimately the outcomes a business achieves.
Our role is to make this visible, and then strengthen it.
How we work
We don’t apply generic templates or impose one-size-fits-all systems.
Our approach is practical and integrated — tailored to your business, your people, and how your work is actually carried out.
We focus on:
- aligning systems so they work together
- building capability within your team
- supporting decisions that reflect real-world conditions
- embedding improvements that last
Everything we do is designed to work in practice — not just on paper.
Our philosophy
Strong businesses don’t rely on compliance alone.
They understand how their systems function day-to-day, how their people operate within them, and how decisions are made under pressure.
That’s where performance comes from.
We believe that when systems, capability, and leadership are aligned, businesses operate more effectively — with greater consistency, confidence, and resilience.
Capability over dependency
We are not here to create reliance.
Our goal is to leave your business stronger — with the capability, clarity, and structure to operate effectively without us.
If you need us less over time, we’ve done our job properly.
Where we add value
We work with businesses that want more than just compliance.
This includes organisations:
- preparing for growth or change
- strengthening governance and leadership
- improving safety, quality, and operational performance
- building capability to support more complex work
- preparing for procurement, prequalification, or external review
We also support organisations working within progressive procurement and government frameworks, where capability and structure are critical to success.
Meet the Team
The Emendas leadership team is made up of Emma Jeffery and Ben Morunga-Toi, a dynamic duo who have been labelled the "facts department" and "feelings department" respectively. The mixture of strengths and specialties means that Emendas can offer both depth and breadth of insight and assistance to businesses throughout Aotearoa.
What we stand for
Emendas takes a holistic view of how organisations operate — bringing together people (human resources), process, safety, wellbeing, and governance into one integrated system.
Our work focuses on understanding how these elements interact in practice — not just how they are documented — giving leaders a clear view of how their business is really operating, and where to focus effort for the greatest impact.
With co-director Pene (Ben) joining in 2021, our work has further strengthened to reflect te ao Māori and the importance of psychosocial safety. This reinforces what sits at the centre of everything we do: he tāngata, he tāngata, he tāngata.
It is with this integrated approach that we:
- support safe and healthy work
- retain and grow capability
- strengthen leadership and decision-making
- build sustainable, productive, and resilient businesses
Our work is grounded in the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, te ao Māori, and the values that underpin Aotearoa businesses.
We have worked across manufacturing, construction, retail, beauty, and not-for-profit sectors, supporting organisations at different stages of growth and complexity.
Our aim is to make this approach more accessible across New Zealand — including through partnerships with funding and service providers. Over time, we intend to extend this into a broader model that supports businesses through a not-for-profit or social enterprise structure.
Because safe, well-functioning workplaces should not be a privilege — they should be the standard.
What an awesome experience for our team. Ben spoke about bi-culturalism, mental health, and identity. He was engaging, keen to know what we needed, and was so easy-going! Months after our kōrero, Ben still gets mentioned for his attitude and encouragement. We can all learn more about our identity and be curious about the identity of others – no matter what our skill level. Ben’s expertise and unique mix of skills make him a practical and compelling consultant for just about any organisation. Tēnā koe, Ben!
We engaged Emendas to facilitate our annual strategic business planning with the SLT. This was held over several sessions and included a review of our vision, setting our strategic objectives and action plans for the coming FY, team analytics and discovery.
Because of Covid, we had to make several changes to our plans. Emma and Ben were accommodating and very professional. They make a great team and are awesome to work with. They were well prepared, took us through the process, asking probing questions and facilitating discussions that encouraged participation and robust discourse. They even went out of their way to ensure session packs were personally delivered when courier services were unreliable. I would love to work with them again.
We engaged Emendas to facilitate our annual strategic business planning with the SLT. This was held over several sessions and included a review of our vision, setting our strategic objectives and action plans for the coming FY, team analytics and discovery.
Because of Covid, we had to make several changes to our plans. Emma and Ben were accommodating and very professional. They make a great team and are awesome to work with. They were well prepared, took us through the process, asking probing questions and facilitating discussions that encouraged participation and robust discourse. They even went out of their way to ensure session packs were personally delivered when courier services were unreliable. I would love to work with them again.
We recently worked with Emma to complete profiles on all of our team, and found the process very simple and straightforward. The profiles that we received were really in-depth, and provided us with excellent insights and some great strategic direction in terms of alignment of core skills vs company positions, and how to get the best from our teams. We would not hesitate to recommend Emma and the Emendas team.