This is the tale of Andre De Ruyter’s three years at Eskom, the Estate-owned electricity company in South Africa and his struggle trying to turn around a sinking tanker. Here are my 10 thoughts on the book:

1. It needs a lot of conviction to take a thankless, less well-paid job like this. Took his belief in patriotism and climate change
2. Electricity type business has very long-term nature. I took decade before corruption, malpractice, neglect add up to cripple the electricity grid. But once it’s down, it takes a lot to repair and get it back up
3. ‘Walk the Floor’. Be there to see things in the front line
4. Lots of fighting against multiple system: dragging Union, political ANC/government, corrupted mafia
5. There waas reward as he got to help the situation for everyday people
6. Pressure of the job – stress, lack of sleep, physical threat, effect on family
7. The farce and irony of incompetent people running the government on strictly political mandate and no real experience
8. Difficult of bulding foundation of a crippling organization and avoiding temptation to rev up this engine for short-term performance
9. Dealing with competing directions and blaming at every stage
10. Importance to set clear goal, hold people accountable and add pride to their work/

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/154799398-truth-to-power?ref=nav_sb_ss_3_14