On a rainy Friday afternoon in New York City, hotel legend John Willard "Bill" Marriott, Jr. sat down with Steve Forbes to talk about family, business, history and leadership.
Marriott, 81, has transformed the business his parents started from one whose main operation was restaurants into a lodging juggernaut that spans 74 countries managing some 4,000 hotels with nearly 700,000 hotel rooms around the globe.
Most recently, Marriott International, expanded its presence in Africa with its plan to buy Protea Hospitality Holdings of Cape Town, South Africa. Protea operates 116 hotels with 10,184 rooms in South Africa, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
The deal will double Marriott's presence in Africa to more than 23,000 rooms making it the largest operator in the region.
Sub-Saharan Africa economic growth of around 5.8% is second only to developing Asia, according to the IMF.
See why Marriott believes in Africa's future, and what he hopes the region has learned from revered leader Nelson Mandela in the clip above.
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