Real Estate Management Program
New Conditions, New Leaders
As the global financial crisis unfolds, forward-thinking real estate leaders must reassess risks while positioning their firms for growth. They also must generate more value using fewer resources. This leadership training program provides a career-building experience during a period of disruption and opportunity.
Offered in conjunction with the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.
What You Can Expect
The Real Estate Management Program brings future industry leaders together with real estate practitioners to explore real-world scenarios, best practices, and effective management techniques for competing successfully in today's volatile global markets.
Your Course of Study
This program explores finance and leadership issues that currently confront the real estate development, design, and construction industries. Participants will enhance their real estate expertise and decision-making capabilities by exploring the latest approaches to financial analysis, leadership and negotiation, and marketing and design.
Who Is Right for the Program
Designed for professionals with an average of five to 15 years of experience, participants often have experience in one or two departments within their firms. They seek to broaden their areas of responsibility and adapt fresh strategies for surviving and growing in a challenging economy.
Harvard University Real Estate Academic Initiative
Read more about the Real Estate Academic Initiative, an interfaculty, interdisciplinary effort to raise the profile of real estate research and education across the University.
What You Can Expect
Improving Your Organization's Performance
Instability in the global real estate industry has heightened the need for in-depth analysis and greater efficiency. As the effects of the financial market crisis continue to unfold, industry leaders must become more adept at anticipating change, recognizing opportunities, and making the most of increasingly limited resources.
The Real Estate Management Program brings future industry leaders together with real estate practitioners to examine real-world scenarios, best practices, alternative ways to value distressed assets, and effective leadership techniques for competing successfully amid ongoing uncertainty. It is designed to help you better position your firm for short-term stability and long-term growth.
Taking Your Skills to the Next Level
In this program, you will explore new strategies for enhancing operational efficiency and improving your leadership skills. Specifically, you will learn to:
- Perform incisive financial analysis of different positioning and financing options
- Negotiate for better outcomes when the facts and dynamics of the situation are unfavorable
- Analyze the investment and value in distressed debt, bank REO sales, and troubled properties
- Reposition the physical aspects of buildings and developments to maximize long-term value
- Identify upside potential and downside risk in opportunistic deals and portfolios
- Lead teams during a period of profound uncertainty, disruption, and realignment
- Analyze and anticipate commercial demand through the lens of tenant companies' future space needs
"Not only did the Real Estate Management program better equip my firm for long-term success, but my pre-course preparation helped us structure a new development deal even before I left for HBS! The confidence you gain from this program is indescribable. It provides the opportunity to meet and learn from the smartest teachers and professional experts in the field, which strengthens your approach to leadership as you chart your company’s direction. You also strengthen your negotiating ability, so you never again have to look over your shoulder and ask, "Did we leave money on the table?" or "Are we sure we got the best deal possible?"
William Fleming Jr., [Business Development Manager], Pee Dee Electric Cooperative, Inc., U.S.
Your Course of Study
Through case studies, interactive classroom exercises, small group discussions, and exposure to the latest research, you will evaluate the likely short- and long-term impacts on real estate values from the financial market crisis. In addition, you will acquire the skills to anticipate what could happen next and, most important, marshal your organization's stretched resources while the world of tenants, lenders, and vendors is in disarray.
Financial Analysis: Understanding the Global Financial Crisis and Your Portfolio
- Examining what happened to the global financial system
- Anticipating what is next for the real estate cycle
- Exploring the impact of the global downturn on different geographies and markets
- Modeling vastly altered macroeconomic factors into the valuation of properties, loans, and investments
Leadership and Negotiation: Leading in Uncertain Times
- Planning alternative scenarios and recognizing the economic triggers that influence outcomes
- Constructing effective communication strategies when the news is bad or when outcomes are less certain
- Avoiding adverse negotiations when the economic pie is not growing
- Managing projects successfully when vendors, suppliers, and capital sources are in turmoil
Marketing and Design: Responding to Troubled Assets and Troubled Companies
- Repositioning space when demand drives rapid change
- Taking advantage of distressed situations
- Protecting company assets and market position when tenants and vendors are failing
"The Real Estate Management Program is truly outstanding, as it offers the opportunity to view the development process from all perspectives—from conception and design to construction and completion. The faculty members are world-class, and the level of experience and diversity of the participants is excellent. The program enabled me to manage projects more successfully, improve my negotiation skills, and develop more effective communication strategies with vendors, suppliers, and capital sources."
Anwar Elgonemy [Director of Acquisitions], Equinox Hospitality Group, U.S.
Who Is Right for the Program
This program primarily explores finance and leadership issues that currently confront professionals in the real estate development, design, and construction industries. Created for executives with five to 15 years of real estate industry experience, often in one or two departments, the program is designed to help you add value to your organization as it contends with the global financial crisis.
Typical participant titles include, but are not limited to:
- Vice president
- Senior investment officer
- Senior portfolio manager
- Senior asset manager
- Acquisitions and disposition manager
- Junior partner
- General counsel
- Controller
- Project manager
Past Participants Represented:
| Sales Volume | Nationalities | ||||
| 5% | less than $1 million | 23% | Asia/Pacific | ||
| 24% | $1-29.99 million | 21% | Europe | ||
| 7% | $30-99.9 million | 5% | Latin America | ||
| 28% | $100-499.9 million | 51% | North America | ||
| 7% | $500-999.9 million | ||||
| 5% | $1-2.49 billion | ||||
| 5% | $2.5-4.99 billion | ||||
| 7% | $10+ billion | ||||
"When you get to the top of an organization, there are fewer people you can turn to for advice. The program was very energizing because it offered the opportunity to mingle with and bounce ideas off like-minded individuals in similar leadership roles. At the same time, the program really opened my mind to what's happening in the real estate industry outside the United States, and offered a new perspective on strategies. In fact, hearing how other executives were tackling their projects prompted me to develop a new vision for how to grow my franchise brand. I realized I could grow more quickly by taking money out of existing assets to invest in new regions. When I came back from the program, I acted on this and found $1M to work with that I didn't know I had."
Richard M. Killian [CEO], Infinity Capital Holding Corporation, Chicago, IL, U.S.
Meet the Program Faculty
Harvard Business School Executive Education programs are developed and taught by a core faculty of HBS professors who are skilled educators, groundbreaking researchers, and award-winning authors. Faculty leverage their business expertise and field-based research to create new knowledge and enduring concepts that shape the practice of management. The result is a teaching team that exposes participants to multiple perspectives, challenging their thinking on many levels. For more detailed biographies, click on each faculty name.
John D. Macomber, Senior Lecturer of Business Administration. Member of the Finance Unit; CEO, BuildingVision, Inc.; faculty chair of "Develop India: Real Estate Strategies for Successful Organizations"; and faculty cochair of the "Real Estate Executive Seminar" and the "Real Estate Management Program."
Edward H. Marchant, Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School.
Richard B. Peiser, Michael D. Spear Professor of Real Estate Development, Harvard Graduate School of Design. Director of the Real Estate Academic Initiative; faculty cochair of the "Real Estate Executive Seminar," and the "Real Estate Management Program."
Spiro N. Pollalis, Professor of Design, Technology, and Management. Member of the Department of Architecture, Harvard Graduate School of Design; Faculty cochair of the "Real Estate Management Program."
Arthur I. Segel, Poorvu Family Professor of Management Practice. Member of the Finance and the Entrepreneurial Management Units; faculty cochair of the "Real Estate Executive Seminar," and the "Real Estate Management Program."
Admissions
Because a diverse participant mix is an important part of every HBS Executive Education program, we look for candidates who reflect a broad range of industries, functions, countries, and backgrounds to enrich the learning experience.
Fees, Payments, and Cancellations
The program fee covers tuition, books, case materials, accommodations, and most meals.
No payment is necessary until you have been accepted into an HBS Executive Education program. After admission notification, we will send you an invoice via email; payment is due within 30 days of the invoice date. If admission is within 30 days prior to the start of the program, payment is due upon receipt of the invoice. Payment is required prior to the program start date. We accept payment by company check, bank wire transfer, or credit card (American Express, MasterCard, Visa). Details are included on the program invoice.
If you need to cancel or defer participation, you must submit your request in writing more than 30 days before the start of the program to receive a full refund. Due to program demand and the volume of preprogram preparation, cancellations or deferrals received 14 to 30 days prior to the start of the program are subject to a fee of one-half of the program fee. Requests received within 14 days are subject to full payment.
Requirements
Although there are no formal educational requirements, admission is a selective process based on professional achievement and organizational responsibility. We look for professionals who have demonstrated business talent and leadership potential.
HBS Executive Education programs enrich both participants and their sponsoring organizations, and require full commitment from each party. While participants devote time and intellect to the learning experience, sponsoring organizations agree to relieve individuals of their work responsibilities during the program.
Language Proficiency
We deliberately design our programs to encourage individual growth and to foster productive interaction among participants. For that reason, proficiency in written and spoken English is essential. If English is your second language, or if you have less than one year's experience working in an English-speaking environment, HBS requires a brief statement documenting proficiency in English-language skills, both conversational and written. This may include a list of the English-language certification programs that you have completed; the degrees you have earned at English-speaking colleges and universities; or the results of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) exam. The Admissions Committee also may request a telephone interview.
Application Process
Program participants must be nominated and sponsored by their current employer. HBS must receive your application and all required documents in order to prepare the application for review by the Admissions Committee.
To apply, you may use our online form or download an application. You also may request a brochure by mail.
If you submit your application online, we will promptly acknowledge receipt of your submission via email. In the unlikely event that an email acknowledgment is not received, please contact the Admissions Committee by email: exed_admissions@hbs.edu, phone: +1-617-495-6226, or fax: +1-617-496-1731.
If you choose to submit a printed application, be sure to type or print legibly and sign your application. Send the application to the address or fax number listed on the form. Mailed or faxed applications are processed and acknowledged promptly upon receipt via email.
Complete Your Application
Please answer all questions thoroughly—the Admissions Committee will only consider completed applications. After reviewing your application and making the necessary edits or corrections, print or copy the application for your records.
Meet the Deadlines
We request applications at least four weeks in advance of the program start date. Early application does not guarantee admission. Programs often fill to capacity, so early application is recommended.
Notification of Acceptance
We acknowledge receipt of all applications and maintain all application information in strict confidentiality.
To optimize the learning experience and maximize the exchange of ideas, the Admissions Committee selects a class that balances each participant's experience, the scope of his or her current responsibilities, and the type of organization.
The Admissions Committee begins reviewing applications four months before the start date, and qualified candidates are admitted on a rolling, space-available basis. Once the review process has begun, applicants are notified within three weeks via email regarding Admissions Committee decisions. If your application is received within three weeks of the program's start date, the Admissions Committee will notify you of their decision as soon as possible.
Need help?
For further assistance, contact our client service specialists at: 1-800-427-5577 (outside the U.S., dial +1-617-495-6555).