Bezos has steadily turned his attention to Blue Origin since stepping down as Amazon’s CEO and now joins regular business reviews and various technical briefings where he “digs into the details” with managers and engineers, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Several current and former employees said the company was also removing chains of decision-making that had become ingrained in Blue Origin’s culture under former chief Bob Smith.
One former executive maintained that the business had grown at a significant clip that meant staff had a “natural inclination to push decisions up,” adding: “We wanted to push down decision-making.”
Yet analysts say Bezos has struggled to get the right leadership into position at the right time.
“The transition points were not always right,” said Carissa Christensen, chief executive of consultancy BryceTech. “A bit early, a little too late, and sometimes painful.”
Current and former employees said Blue Origin had become more aggressive in its flight schedule under Limp’s leadership.
They said the decision to launch New Glenn in January without being confident that the company would land its first-stage booster—which it intends to be reusable—reflected a shift in Blue Origin’s risk appetite. The booster was lost on re-entry, but the rocket made it to orbit as planned.
Bezos and Limp have also moved to change working patterns at Blue Origin. Online forums in the days after recent layoffs were filled with comments from employees remarking they were being moved to a permanent 50-hour week with frequent 12-hour shifts, while badge scanners had been introduced to track employee time similar to Amazon.
“Dave doesn’t have much respect for work-life balance,” said one former senior employee.
Limp has spoken publicly alongside Bezos about increasing the number of launches this year and reaching the Moon with the company’s Blue Moon lunar lander.
“Blue Origin needs to be much faster, and it’s one of the reasons that I left my role as the CEO of Amazon a couple of years ago,” Bezos told researcher and podcast host Lex Fridman last year. “Blue Origin needs me right now, adding some energy, some sense of urgency.”
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