ABSTRACT
There is plenty of literature published on conceiving, designing, building, financing, and acquiring real estate, yet not much has been written on how to build high performing real estate organizations. To be an enduring company that can effectively construct, acquire, finance, and manage the hard assets of the built environment, the organization responsible for making it happen must be hired, trained, motivated, and appropriately led. In fact, it can be argued that the true assets of an enterprise are the ones that “go down the elevator” each night. It can also be said that the job of high-quality leadership is to inspire these employees to return day after day and continue to perform great work for their companies. This paper examines many of the critical factors that are essential for developing high performing real estate organizations. The chapter addresses how to bring together four factors that form the competitive fabric of superior real estate companies: strategy, talent, culture, and capital. The chapter explores how to construct a real estate industry value chain and position the core competencies of a company on the value chain so it can successfully compete. It then examines how executives can build their own personal leadership skills necessary to oversee high performing companies. The important steps for hiring and training employees, and amalgamating talent into a productive company culture are then discussed. Finally, the chapter examines how strategy, talent, and culture can be effectively utilized to attract desirable, low-cost capital for future investment and development activities.
