By Joey Roulette
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – In a recent all-hands call, the CEO of Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ space company, unveiled plans for a company-wide downsizing, affecting approximately 10% of its workforce. This move comes as part of a broader strategy to streamline operations, reduce expenses, and enhance the frequency of rocket launches. The layoffs will impact around 1,400 out of the firm’s close to 14,000 employees, with the majority situated in Florida, Texas, and Washington.
The announcement coincides with Blue Origin’s commencement of production for the New Glenn rocket, a significant undertaking that marked its inaugural launch just last month. Addressing employees during the meeting, CEO Dave Limp expressed the challenges of conveying such news, acknowledging the company’s recent achievements while emphasizing the need to position Blue Origin for sustained success in the coming years.
Limp underscored the importance of optimizing manufacturing processes for the New Glenn rocket and increasing its launch rate to effectively compete with SpaceX, led by Elon Musk and renowned for its Falcon 9 rocket. He stressed the necessity of fostering a corporate culture characterized by agility, decisiveness, and customer-centricity to achieve these strategic objectives.
Since assuming leadership in 2023, following his recruitment from Amazon’s consumer tech division, Limp has been entrusted with consolidating Blue Origin’s diverse business endeavors, ranging from space stations to lunar landing solutions for NASA. His tenure has been marked by a concerted effort to prioritize the New Glenn project, infusing the organization with a renewed sense of purpose and urgency after experiencing prolonged development challenges.
Despite the imperative for speed and efficiency that Limp has instilled, some employees have voiced concerns about diminishing morale and cultural shifts within the company. Reports suggest that a segment of the workforce is exploring external job opportunities, irrespective of their status following the recent round of layoffs.
(Reporting by Joey Roulette, Editing by Franklin Paul)
