Amonth after joining Eskom in April 2012, its exco informed Sal Laher that his new division’s performance was so under par, it had received the lowest score of any division in the enormous organisation.

“The board told me our compact score – which measures and determines everything a division does – was two out of five,” Laher recalls. “By the end of that financial year, we received the highest score of any Eskom division with 4.2 out of five.”