#141—Matthew Weinzierl and Brendan Rosseau: The Impact of the Space Industry on Business and Humankind

In this episode, we are joined by Brendan Rosseau and Matthew Weinzierl co-authors of Space to Grow: Unlocking the Final Economic Frontier. This episode is a journey, metaphorically speaking, into the beyond: outer space itself.

Matthew is a Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, and the Senior Associate Dean and Chair of the MBA program, where his award-winning research and teaching focus on economic policy and the business of space. He is the founder of the Economics of Space project at HBS and serves as an adviser on space to government agencies, companies, and investors.

Brendan is a recognized leader in the space industry. He works in strategy at Blue Origin (the space company wholly owned by Jeff Bezos). He previously served as a teaching fellow and research associate at Harvard Business School and as a consultant to the U.S. Space Force. He is dedicated to using space technologies to bring about a more prosperous, peaceful, equitable and exciting future.

In this episode, we explore the boundaries, and intersection, of fundamental laws of economics within the context of the rapidly developing space industry or market. We also glean insights on how other markets have and will evolve: the automobile industry, ecommerce, precision farming and potentially the economies around AI or blockchain.

If we understand these underlying economic forces, we can more accurately anticipate when and how such new markets will emerge and, in the case of space, it may be coming much sooner than most of us outside of the space industry think.

In this episode, we discuss:

• How the space industry and space technology have the potential to—and will—disrupt many business industries as we know them today
• The fascinating evolution of NASA as a government-funded R&D entity to a private sector ‘market creator’ acting as a “customer among many customers” so they can pave the way for space innovation
• The fundamental economic laws that govern how the space industry will evolve—and how markets here on earth will evolve as well
• The near-term financial opportunities you may not be thinking of that are providing a kind of economic bridge from private sector actors (who need near-term profit) and long-term players (like the government or large corporations who have the funding to pursue the opportunities offered by the moon and Mars)
• How the rapid formation of a space industry will directly impact companies in nearly every sector, even those with no obvious connection to space

Episode Timeline:
00:00—Highlight from today's episode
01:28—Introducing Matthew and Brendan + the topic of today’s episode
05:37—If you really know me, you know that...
07:03—What is your definition of strategy?
09:14—What are near-term opportunities the space industry will open?
12:15—Some use cases of revenue opportunities from space
17:39—Introducing the Evergreen '7 Ps'
19:40—How has the role of NASA changed over time?
29:26—What are things that need to be in place to realize the market of space?
32:14—The governing laws of space
37:32—How will competition of the space markets unfold?
40:17—What mov

Thank you to our guest. Thank you to our executive producer, Karina Reyes, our editor, Zach Ness, and the rest of the team. If you like what you heard, please follow, download, and subscribe. I'm your host, Kaihan Krippendorff. Thank you for listening.

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