Steve Jurkovich: We had three priorities. One was the health, safety and wellness of our own people. Secondly, what would we do to protect our customers? And thirdly, what would we do to protect our stakeholders and shareholders? And so for us, we wanted to start within the boundaries of our own organisation, because we knew that people were feeling anxious about having to support customers and what they could do. So, sort of eat your own dog food. Start with us and then support it getting out to the wider community.

In what ways is Groov contributing positively to you and your people?

I use it a lot sometimes. I don't have a few days I don't use it at all. But actually, some of the habits and rituals that I've picked up from it, I, I sort of notice myself if I'm not in a great space, I think actually I've got a tool I can go and use. And then other times, rather than just sort of endlessly scrolling something, I'm actually, you know, listening to that interview that you did with Mick [Fanning], or picking up on something else, and actually what I've been finding is that's been easy to pass on to someone else and say, well, maybe you ever think about this.

So. I think some people are using that way, and others are people, you know, really like to probably start their day off with that. So, you know, I think it's flexible, and it's open, and it's growing all the time, so I think it's going to continue to be really useful.

Kiwibank values having a positive impact on the community. How is Groov helping you achieve this goal?

I guess we're searching for a way that we could have impact at scale. And then, as a, you know, even though we're a big organisation, we're pretty small in the scheme of things, so we don't need to do everything ourselves. So, how could we partner with someone? So, sort of a bit lighter touch for us, but reach a lot more people.

And then obviously the personal impact you've had, but also Adam Clark, your business partner who I'd worked with before. And so, you know, just instinctually it felt like these are the right people that are going to have an impact and it felt like the right time. ​

Do you have any advice for senior leaders around leading through uncertainty?

My grandparents came out from Yugoslavia. They carved out a dairy farm and, you know, just outside of Paeroa from nothing. And so I've always had a bit of an affinity for agriculture and agribusinesses. And one of the things that sort of struck me there is as those businesses get bigger and there's trouble times, because you know, they're cyclical and the milk price goes up and down and sheep and beef prices go up and down. Um, a guy that I worked with said to me, you know, you don't solve these problems by getting up half an hour earlier and you don't solve them by getting to the milking shed an hour earlier.

So I think you have to sort of control the controllables and know that, you know, for those sorts of things, you can't influence the milk price, but you can control what's happening on farm. You can't control the weather, but making choices about those sorts of things. So I think it's just trying to have a clear vision about what can I do and, you know, what choices can I make?

And that, and then that's not easy and it's not trivial, you know, some of that stuff's super complex. But. Ultimately, you can only sort of deal with what's in front of you. And, you know, my personal bias is towards a growth mindset, which is what's possible. You've seen lots of businesses that are actually trading pretty well. Others that are struggling and, um, talking about it and sometimes making the tough decisions is all you can do.