Excerpt
SUMMARY: For Mark Bertolini, CEO of health insurer Aetna, a near-death experience led him to make big changes in his personal life and at the company. Living with pain from a skiing accident inspired him to take up yoga and meditation, which made him wonder if it could also help his employees. Economics correspondent Paul Solman reports.
PAUL SOLMAN (NewsHour): Aetna insurance, number 57 on the Fortune 500, surprised corporate America recently when it hiked its minimum wage to $16/hour. It was a quirky move by a quirky CEO, Mark Bertolini, motorcycle enthusiast, former hippie, and two-time college dropout, who aced the GMAT exam on a lark, which led to a Cornell MBA, and a career in health insurance.
This CEO manages by walking around, slowly and mindfully, actually practicing walking meditation, and attentively listening to his employees.
MARK BERTOLINI, CEO, Aetna: This income inequality issue was rattling around in my head. I mean, I came from a family that wasn’t — you know, we, sometimes didn’t have insurance. My dad worked half-time. My — you know, my mother was a part-time nurse.
And so I had been pushing the team on it, but I was getting this sort of — you know, we’re running a company, you know?
PAUL SOLMAN: Yes.
MARK BERTOLINI: This is a — we’re, you know, a capitalist enterprise. We’re a commercial enterprise.
PAUL SOLMAN: Did they know that you were a hippie in the…
MARK BERTOLINI: Oh, yes.
PAUL SOLMAN: … ’70s?
MARK BERTOLINI: Well, kind of. We’re not the first company to really make this kind of investment. I mean, Patagonia, there’s a book out about it, right? “Let My People Go Surfing,” right?
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