Gordon Hood

"The two sides clearly had different views regarding their new arrangement. To SAB, Sol’s new Southern Sun was a subsidiary of their huge company. To Sol, SAB was his banker, not his boss. However, to protect their position, SAB insisted on planting two of their men in Southern Sun’s management company – one at a very senior level and the other in administration. Gordon Hood, a long-time SAB employee, was duly installed in Southern Sun, effectively as Sol’s “number two”."

"With the clock ticking and only two weeks to the deadline, Sol was still making changes to the construction work and adjusting costs in his quest to improve the finished product. As he flew over the unfinished building en route to Plett airport from Johannesburg for one final “push”, he asked the pilot to make another pass over the building. “Shit!” he said loudly. “We’ve built the wrong fucking pool!” Since Sol’s last visit a couple of weeks earlier, Gordon Hood had started and finished construction of the hotel’s swimming pool, a rectangular structure in the centre of the beach-facing garden. Sol, browsing an international travel magazine on the plane, had just seen a picture of a resort swimming pool of highly irregular shape, wrapping its way around a rocky crag and an island bar. It was, at the time, an extremely unusual design. “Shit,” said Sol again. “We should have fucking well done that.” When he reached the construction site, he stomped into the hotel lobby, head down and walking swiftly with distinct purpose. Gordon was waiting for him. “Fuck, Gordie,” said Sol, even before greeting his colleague. “We’ve built the wrong fucking pool!” Gordon had no idea what Sol was talking about. In fact, he was proud of the pool project he had just overseen. He thought it looked great. “No, man,” Sol ranted on, seeing that Gordon was about to get defensive. “Look at this.” He thrust the travel magazine in Gordon’s face. “Come on, man. We haven’t got much fucking time. Let’s find a place for a new pool, and rip that one out.” Gordon looked at the magazine as he scurried after his boss. He liked the picture, but he did not like the idea of ripping up what he had just painstakingly built. “It can’t be that important,” he mumbled to himself, “and we are already over budget for the job. Building a new pool will just exacerbate the problem.” As he hurried along behind a striding Sol, he tried to protest. “But Sol, we can’t afford to build a new pool. We don’t have the budget.” “Now listen to me, Gordie,” his boss retorted. “If we don’t change it now, we never will – and that would be a huge mistake. So, fuck the budget. Rip this one out and build another.” Sol was right, of course."