During a two-month stretch this fall, Cigna Corp. CEO David Cordani traveled to nearly a dozen cities in the United Kingdom, Belgium, Turkey, South Korea, Taiwan, and China.
The 45-year-old health insurance executive wasn’t on a sight-seeing tour. Instead, he was laying the foundation for Cigna’s future global expansion, one of the hallmarks of the company’s long-term growth strategy for 2012 and beyond.
Although Cigna is headquartered in Bloomfield, Cordani doesn’t view the company as just a U.S. health insurer anymore. With recent acquisitions in Belgium and the United Kingdom, first-time entry into India and Turkey and one of the largest expatriate businesses in the world, Cigna has evolved into a global health services company, Cordani said.
“In a challenging global economy, we are growing all of our business lines across the globe,” Cordani said in a recent interview. Korea is the company’s largest foreign market, while China is their fastest growing.
Cordani, a tall, trim tri-athlete who speaks passionately about health care, is leading a company expected to experience significant growth in 2012.
Cigna has pledged to add at least 200 jobs in Connecticut over the next two years, part of its agreement for receiving up to $50 million in incentives under the state’s “First Five,” program. Cigna is also expanding its workforce in Delaware, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Minnesota.
With little to no space left at its newly minted corporate headquarters at 900 Cottage Grove Rd., rumors have been swirling that Cigna could build a new corporate office there. Cordani wouldn’t confirm any new build-out, but when asked if the company would need more facilities and/or space he said, “I think we will.”
Besides international and local growth, Cordani said the goals for 2012 include building off the momentum of Cigna’s recent rebranding, in which the company is shifting more of its focus to individual consumers.
It’s a particularly important strategy in view of health care reform, which is expected to grow the ranks of individuals who buy insurance on their own.
Cigna’s strategy includes consulting more with customers rather than simply selling them products. It also means focusing products around the health and productivity of individuals by continuing to expand wellness and other disease and chronic management programs. It also means personalizing services. Cigna, for example, is increasingly communicating with customers through Facebook and Twitter and will be rolling out a mobile application so the company can reach customers through their preferred form of communication.
It also means trying to build its share in the individual insurance market, where Cigna is only a small player right now.
The recent $3.8 billion acquisition of Tennessee-based HealthSpring plays into that strategy. Besides boosting Cigna’s presence in the increasingly lucrative Medicare Advantage business, Cordani said the company also plans to build some “non-senior products off of HealthSpring’s chassis,” to expand the individual market offerings.
Cordani said Cigna expects to add 400,000 new U.S. customers to its rolls in 2012. More M&A activity could also be in the pipeline, as Cigna looks for growth.
