IRVINE, CA—John Kilroy Jr. has learned a thingor two about real estate development in his 47years in the business. Among them, the chairman, CEO and directorof San Francisco-based development firm Kilroy RealtyCorp. has learned to recognize how the business haschanged, and he shared some of his insights at a recentIREM Orange County Signature Icon luncheon eventhere.

An overarching theme of Kilroy's presentation was that peopleare more important than buildings in real estate. “Eighty percentof today's companies' cost structure is people.” he said. “Themodern real estate executive and tech clusters view the workplaceas, 'Where do I have to be to attract and retain the best talent?'”

He also emphasized the importance of “surrounding yourself witha certain type of people: those who can figure out how to getthings done. To win, you need an extraordinarily good team.”There's no room for ego in such a team, he said—successful teammembers “reassess what they need to do better in order to win.”