Blue Origin’s leadership shakeup: the change the company needs?
Bob Smith, Blue Origin’s CEO of six years, is departing the company in a move widely perceived as the end of a lackluster era. Under his tenure, Blue Origin grew from 1,500 employees to 11,000 but has yet to launch an orbital vehicle and has struggled to land key contracts.
Smith reportedly discussed his departure for months with Blue Origin owner Jeff Bezos, who subsequently tapped Amazon’s senior vice president of devices and services, David Limp, to take the role. Limp’s career path doesn’t seem like one that would transfer over to launch/space access, but as the buyer of the world’s largest launch contracts (Project Kuiper), Limp spent lots of time getting familiar with Blue Origin and its competitors.
Blue Origin is at a key inflection point. While Bezos pledged to invest $1 billion annually into the company, Blue’s annual costs have easily eclipsed that. “Gradatim Ferociter,” Blue’s infamous Latin motto of “step by step, ferociously” has felt more like “gradatim sine fine,” or “step by step, endlessly.” Is Limp the guy to get Blue Origin moving beyond tortoise speed? Here’s what we see:
Pros:
New blood. It doesn't take more than a quick tour of Blue Origin’s Glassdoor reviews to find a substellar take on company leadership. Employee complaints suggest an upper-level refresh could do a lot of good.
Consumer pace. Limp’s experience with Amazon devices like Kindles and Firesticks shows an ability to move with speed to introduce modern technologies. With the BE-4 engine now six years behind schedule, having an executive who emphasizes speed could be a difference maker.
Cons:
Mixed record? In addition to mega-hits, Limp’s track record at Amazon includes a raft of money-losing products like the Fire Phone, Halo fitness devices, and the infamous Alexa digital assistant (the latter reportedly lost $10 billion). His bold bets on new tech haven’t always panned out.
Kuiper struggles. The space project most recently under Limp’s leadership, Project Kuiper, has struggled to stay on schedule, hobbled most recently by a series of launch delays for the company’s first two prototype satellites (a gating item for the ~3,200-satellite constellation).
Overshadowing Blue Origin is a blockbuster year for SpaceX, which has launched more than 60 times this year while holding onto spots in key programs like NASA’s Human Lander System and DoD’s National Security Space Launch program that Blue protested. The space sector had long thought Blue Origin would be a formidable rival to SpaceX. If the company gets launching, maybe it can be.
SOURCE: https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/25/23889986/amazon-blue-origin-dave-limp-ceo