BUSINESS REENGINEERING AT CIGNA-CORPORATION - EXPERIENCES AND LESSONSLEARNED FROM THE 1ST 5 YEARS

Considerable uncertainty and confusion exists about what business reen gineering is and when it succeeds. This paper provides a longitudinal view of CIGNA Corporation's experiences in business reengineering sinc e 1989. CIGNA is a leading provider of insurance and related financial services throughout the United States and the world. Between 1989 and 1993, CIGNA completed over 20 reengineering initiatives, saving more than $100 million. Each $1 invested in reengineering has ultimately br ought $2-3 in returned benefits. This article describes projects with major payoffs: operating expenses reduced by 42 percent, cycle times i mproved by 100 percent, customer satisfaction up by 50 percent, qualit y improvements of 75 percent. It also highlights how CIGNA's reenginee ring started small and how learning was used to escalate from this qui ck hit to reengineering larger and more complex parts of the organizat ion. CIGNA's reengineering successes have also required a willingness to allow failure and learn from failures. Only about 50 percent of the reengineering efforts bring the type of benefits expected initially. Repeated trials are often necessary. CIGNA's lessons can help other fi rms anticipate what they will experience as they ascend the learning c urve of business reengineering.