When Columbia Business School got a call from space

“I guess I’ll answer the question later then”

The NASA official, answering students’ questions had to walk away from the podium. No one was paying an iota of attention to him anymore. Behind him, Tim Kopra, Commander of the International Space Station and Columbia Business School alum, literally floated in front of the camera. And I am not using the word literally like a lot of us millennials do. I mean it.

For twenty minutes, members of the Columbia Business School community stared in amazement as one of us, wearing a CBS shirt, standing in front of a CBS centennial flag talked to us from outer space. We’ve had some great speakers at CBS and some very special lectures, but this interaction, given through an earth-to-space live call was an unparalleled experience. Despite being the coolest person in the room, our #AstroAlum answered each and every question he was asked with utmost humility.

I’ve tried to summarize below, this mind-blowing Q&A session. All mistakes and misunderstandings are entirely mine.

MBA: Tim felt that team and relationship building skill was the most important thing he learnt and refined during his MBA. These soft skills have the greatest overlap across industries and job profiles. It is also important to maintain these relationships after graduation because this network is an invaluable asset.

Leadership lessons: Listening to team members and being flexible is of cardinal importance if a leader wishes to get buy-in. This becomes even more important in a multi-cultural/ international setting where one has to listen not only to understand different points of view but also the cultural context. Learning the language of your international teammates also goes a long way in building trust.

In space, a lot of complexities get amplified, especially while doing space to earth calls. Since there is no physical context, the tone of your voice and the choice of vocabulary become even more important. Getting along with your team is also a more critical when orbiting around the earth in an artificial satellite. Here, you are confined to the walls of the satellite and you can’t just walk away after disagreements to get more ‘space’. No pun intended.

Risk: To put astronauts into space, they’re put in a Soyuz launched by rocket. This metal object then has to perfectly dock into the space station to get new astronauts on board. Clearly, by its very nature, space exploration is a risky business. As such, risk taking during execution is non-existent. Risk mitigation on the other hand, becomes way more important. The ideal scenario is to execute the plan flawlessly, every single time.

Space Exploration: The commercialization of space is both exciting and interesting but the greatest challenge is that the processes need to perfected before space exploration it becomes a viable, mainstream business. Typically businesses learn by failing multiple times and then incorporating the lessons into practice. This is not a feasible approach for human space flights because lives are risked each time.