Adam Bryant conducts interviews of senior-level executives that appear in his “Corner Office” column each week in the SundayBusiness section of The New York Times. Here are a few insights provided during an interview of Joel S. Marcus chief executive of Alexandria Real Estate Equities. “I never think, ‘Oh, I need to make that decision and I know I’m right.’ That was hard to learn for a while, but I’ve learned that lesson,” he said. To read the complete interview, check out other articles, and obtain subscription information, please click here.

Photo credit: Mark Kauzlarich/The New York Times

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What were some early influences for you?

I grew up in Denver. My dad was an entrepreneur and had many careers — he built homes, sold cars, managed restaurants and then ended up in a political career. I was always interested in what he was doing, and I spent a lot of time with him when he was working. I wanted to be in business from Day 1.

How else did your parents influence you?

My father and mother were children of the Depression. They graduated from high school but never went to college. They were always very careful about managing money and believed in having no debt.

Tell me about your college years.

I studied accounting because I knew it was an easy way to have a job. That was my dad’s mentality — have a skill set that is depression-proof. In good times and bad times, everybody needs an accountant.

Then I went to law school, and after that went to Arthur Young, the accounting firm, to become a C.P.A. That’s where I met my first mentor, who was responsible for probably one of the most important things that ever happened in my life. He took me under his wing, and one day he said to me: “I’m teaching this tax class over at U.S.C. I’ve got a lot going on, and I’d like you to start teaching some of the classes.” I told him I had never taught before, but he said: “You’ll figure it out. Just go do it.”

I found that I really liked teaching. He opened up the world of public speaking to me, and I also started doing seminars on taxation, which helped me get a lot of new clients.

So how did you end up in your current role?

I had shifted to a law firm, and another moment occurred that changed my life. A call came in from an investment banker to the head of the corporate law group, who had left the firm. But the secretary said to them: “Joel Marcus is here. He can help you.”

I was a young partner at the firm, and she didn’t know if I could help them or not. But unlike some lawyers who treat administrative staff poorly, I had always been respectful and nice to them. She reached out to me purely because she liked me.

The person calling was looking for someone to represent Kirin Brewery on a big biotech deal with Amgen. That led me to spend a lot of time in Japan and work on other deals in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. Because of that work, I was approached by the Jacobs Engineering Group to work on a business plan to launch a life science real estate company as a garage start-up. Then they asked me to run it. I told them no at first, but I eventually agreed.

Did you have management experience at that point?

I had worked on projects with others, but I never had to hire people or inspire them before then. I was 47, and I had no operational or management experience up to that point. Zero. But I knew about accounting, tax and legal issues, so that was a pretty good start.

So 21 years later, how big is the company?

We have about 200 employees.

And what are some key insights you learned along the way about culture and leadership?

I’ve always felt it’s good to keep a flat, decentralized and cross-matrix reporting organization. We don’t have an organizational chart; I actually ban org charts from being done because I don’t believe in them.

I’m a big fan of Eric Schmidt and the book he co-wrote, How Google Works, where he says you should hire smart, creative people and then not put them in boxes. Give them a lot of authority to do some great things and you’re going to have great results. I don’t like hierarchical reporting structures.

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To read the complete interview as well as Bryant’s interviews of other executives, please click here.

Adam Bryant, deputy national editor of The New York Times, oversees coverage of education issues, military affairs, law, and works with reporters in many of the Times’ domestic bureaus. He also conducts interviews with CEOs and other leaders for Corner Office, a weekly feature in the SundayBusiness section and on nytimes.com that he started in March 2009. In his book, The Corner Office: Indispensable and Unexpected Lessons from CEOs on How to Lead and Succeed, (Times Books), he analyzes the broader lessons that emerge from his interviews of hundreds of business leaders. To read an excerpt, please click here. To contact him, please click here.