Copy-and-Improve Blueprint Acquisition

“Sol soaked up every ounce of knowledge that he could from the American. He now had to get back to South Africa and build his mini-Fontainebleau. Even if he did not fully realise it at the time, he had learned far more from Ben Novack than just how to design a resort hotel; he had also seen how to run one. The result was not a 1 000-room beachside hotel in an established resort town but a 72-room replica of the giant Miami hotel, located in an undeveloped village on South Africa’s Natal coast. Sol stopped short of naming his hotel the “Fontainebleau”, which his prospective local clientele would not have understood. Instead, he settled for “The Beverly Hills”. Everyone in South Africa knew what that meant.”

“As was his way, Sol had again been overseas to “investigate”, taking Barry King and his sketchpad along. The pair had been particularly impressed by Chez Régine in Paris and New York, where Barry had sat with his pad under the table.”