MBAs in Space

I went to a screening of the movie Avatar recently. Set 150 years in the future, a corporate firm has ventured light years away (at subluminal speeds), to the distant planet Pandora, where they mine the aptly named 'unobtanium', which sells for (IIRC) $20M per kilogram on Earth.

This MBA candidate had some questions.

1) how did the learn about the unobtanium? How was the research conducted and who owned the original research? These questions lead up to the formation of the firm: was it formed to puruse a known opportunity, or to discover opportunities and then act on them? I can envision a future where observational space exploration is privatized and information is sold off to investors. Imagine, if you will, a ratings agency for extra-solar space exploration. Alpha Centauri could be AAA rated. Epsilon Eridani, not so much.

2) is the corporation the only human agency on Pandora? it seems to me that in real life there would be some small state actors, and possibly competitors. James Cameron always depicts corporations as monolithic entities fueled by greed. He doesn't seem to realize that firms - even monopolistic firms - compete with one another, and typically operate in a regulated environment.

3) The firm behind Pandora's exploration is clearly incorporated; reference is made to answer to shareholders. What is their capital structure? Colonizing a planet that takes several years to get to, let alone return from, is a capital-intensive project that will not generate returns for many years. Real-life examples that come to mind would be telecommunications and power companies. Perhaps warrants, convertibles, and other special instruments were used to fund the company.

4) Clearly the humans have been involved on Pandora for quite some time. They have had time to study the native biology, build schools, teach them English, and (presumably) develop mining operations outside of the scope of the film.

OK, so that last one isn't a question, it's just an observation.

Halfway Point

I am officially halfway through my degree. I don't know my grades yet, but the end of this semester marks 30 credits. Next spring, I start taking electives. I am really looking forward to that.

So, what have I learned to date?

I learned about accounting. I like accounting, it's pretty straightforward. I got a little lost managing my contra-asset and contra-liability accounts (but fell in love with the wording), and how to manage an allowance for bad credit, or for theft, but still, the high level discussions of Enron and and Worldcom shenanigans were very interesting.

I learned about management. I learned how to organize teams, whether hierarchically or vertically, by function or geography, as well as a lattice structure. This was very applicable to my current environment. I work for a ginormous international conglomerate.

I took two strategy classes, back to back; I wish I hadn't, but I really wanted to take Strategy II. Here, I learned of a field I might be particularly interested in. After apocryphal stories of Coke kicking Pepsi out of Venezuela, and learning that Google is not in as strong a spot as it is widely considered to be, I decided to make strategy one of my specializations.

Statistics was nearly the end of me, but I grew tremendously. Firms and Markets was alternately easy and baffling - we had a new prof who would sometimes skip steps.

Operations was more difficult than I expected; Global Economy was easier. Here, again, I found a topic of long-term interest - macroeconomics - to consider as a specializations. Foundations of Finance began as a very interesting class but devolved into a forced march through options pricing.

So now that I've finished up Corporate Finance and Marketing, I have the basic skills of a proto-MBA, right? I at least know the questions to ask, and can follow developments in the news.