What we do
Esby & Co is a specialist consultancy helping leaders design world-leading partnerships and procurement experiences. We empower clients across NZ and Australia to navigate complex technology and transformation environments.
Organisations work with us for our strategic and commercial intelligence, our leadership in Lean-Agile Procurement, and our ability to align teams with strategy. We use tech-enabled and people-centric approaches to unlock value and accelerate delivery.
Esby & Co was established in 2019. We reshape how people engage with their customers, suppliers and the ecosystem in which they operate. We are building a team of trusted and influential advisors doing bigger and better things to support our clients in Australasia and beyond.
Why our clients choose to work with us
Strategic and Commercial Intelligence
Most people are good at their job but many do not seek to understand the strategic and commercial drivers of their suppliers and the markets in which they operate. We advise organisations on the ‘buy’ and ‘sell’ side in the public and private sectors. We have deep expertise in commercial partnerships, procurement and negotiations across multiple industries. We blend commercial acumen with empathy to build trusted and resilient commercial relationships.
We align People and Partners with Business Strategy
Procurement creates the most value when it is directly connected to business strategy. Whether it’s a high-stakes sourcing project or a redesign of the operating model, the work must be guided by the outcomes the business needs to achieve.
We start by understanding your strategic priorities, then bring together people and partners around a shared direction. By quickly building trust across teams and organisations, we make it possible to cut through competing objectives and focus on what really matters: delivering measurable results for the business.
Our role is to create a clear line of sight from strategy to execution – ensuring that procurement and partnerships not only meet immediate needs but also accelerate long-term performance.
We focus on the Customer
Procurement and supplier management can be arduous and full of unnecessary jargon. We transform the value of procurement by creating procurement experiences that your customers and users love. We perform operating model reviews, process simplification, capability building and procurement technology adoption analysis. If you are spending millions of dollars on suppliers, you need a procurement function that is responsive, delivers exceptional experiences, and maximises commercial potential while minimising risk.
We are New Zealand and Australia’s Lean-Agile Procurement experts
Esby & Co is New Zealand and Australia’s leading delivery partner and trainer in Lean-Agile Procurement or LAP. We drastically reduce the time that it takes for you to source complex products and services with our collaborative and engaging alternative to the traditional RfP. We are trusted by large organisations in NZ and Australia to lead the sourcing of their critical partners and solutions, from technology transformations to nationwide services, impacting millions of people.
How we work
Engaging is who we are
We use passion, positivity and inspiration to bring fun to our work. We bring a renewed sense of purpose to organisations by curating creativity, fresh thinking, and optimism.
Simplicity is our aim
It’s time to cut the procurement-ese and complexity where its not adding value. We help you simplify how you do things to create meaningful value, happier people and experiences.
Change is what we enable
Lasting change happens at the intersection of people and purpose. We help you build alignment and understanding, providing the support you need for forward momentum.
Why we do it
No person is an island. We achieve 10x more when we work successfully with others. When human relationships thrive, our business relationships flourish beyond expectations and that’s when we get to create amazing things that drastically improve the world that we live in. And that’s what gets us up in the morning. We love equipping people and teams with what they need to design better commercial partnerships and procurement experiences.
We love working with execs and teams to help them make sense of complex commercial and procurement strategies. Our aim is to be a trusted advisor to achieve their definition of success.
Sarah Blackie, CEO
Our Values
Open-minds: We believe most people bring good intent to their work. We treasure opportunities to learn from a variety of perspectives and creative thinking. We encourage our clients to do the same.
People-first: We believe that great things happen when we take the time to connect and collaborate. We listen to and care about our clients and their partners. We use plain language to help people feel included and understood.
Challenge: We respectfully challenge the status quo where we believe there are better ways to achieve what our clients need. Our clients know us for this, and as we challenge each other, our mutual trust grows.
Business for good: We want our businesses and communities to prosper. People and businesses should be rewarded for their hard work, good ideas and successes. We also believe there is always more that organisations can do to help our economy, our environment and our society to prosper.
Our history
Esby & Co was established by Sarah Blackie in 2019.
Sarah founded Esby & Co after 15+ years of managing commercial relationships, negotiations and teams.
Sarah has led and advised organisations in New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom and the USA and served as a Board Director for two New Zealand businesses with a global footprint. Prior to forming Esby & Co, Sarah created and led Xero’s global commercial and procurement function. She is an award-winning advisor, with 15+ years global experience in technology, energy, financial and infrastructure sectors.
In 2022, Esby & Co was rebranded from its previous name “Esby.” Esby & Co is a growing team of experts and together we are doing bigger and better things to better serve our clients and our purpose. We can’t wait to work with you.
