The insurance industry is not known for risk-taking – and with good reason. Our job is to help our customers avoid risk; this is the cornerstone of our business and everything we do. For us, taking a conservative approach is not a choice so much as a calling.

I understand this style of doing business because I come from a long line of insurance people. My grandmother was an Aetna employee in the 1970s. My father, my uncle, and my aunt worked in insurance. We were an insurance family. So, after college, I worked in various aspects of the business myself, from medical cost containment to workers' compensation.

When I was hired to manage the CIGNA Technology Institute (CTI), an education-focused organization that helps CIGNA implement technology and ensures that all employees use technology productively, I knew I would be facing a big challenge. CIGNA, a leading provider of employee benefits in the United States, with a workforce of 40,000, established CTI in 2001. As I took over the leadership of CTI, I realized that not only would I need to find ways to encourage innovation within the confines of the tradition on which our company thrives, but I would have to do this while meeting the demands of a highly regulated environment.

In this chapter I describe how we at CIGNA have tried to achieve a balance between innovation and conservatism, between helping employees do their best work and helping them and the organization observe important guidelines.