Lorenz Hess, you have been working with CEO Angelo Eggli for seven years now in your capacity as Visana’s Chair of the Board of Directors. What does your working relationship look like?
Lorenz Hess: We are like two mountaineers who are roped together so they can climb the same mountain. We know each other’s strengths and have full confidence in our longstanding working relationship. As far as day-to-day business goes, we get on extremely well, have a candid and direct style of communication and agree on the big things. That has a positive impact on the entire company. It is always beneficial to a company if there are not too many changes at the top. We’re an experienced, smooth-running team where each knows what their role is.
Angelo Eggli, what’s your assessment?
Angelo Eggli: Our longstanding working relationship is very valuable – for the company, for me, in everyday work. We realised straight away that we have similar values and are pursuing the same objectives. As Chair of the Board of Directors, Lorenz always has an eye for what’s important, and that impresses me. He stays calm even when we are facing challenging decisions. In my view, that makes him an important sparring partner and boss. Lorenz asks the right questions and voices his ideas.
Exactly what values does Visana embody?
Lorenz Hess: Visana is a company steeped in tradition and with strong local roots in the canton of Bern and Espace Mittelland. The fact that we are headquartered in Bern certainly shapes our corporate culture, and I make no apology for repeating myself: a down-to-earth attitude, quality mindset and focus on people are all typical of Visana.
How has Visana developed in recent years?
Angelo Eggli: I was impressed by Visana’s corporate culture, with its focus on customers, respect and uncompromising quality, from the moment I started working here. We’re not building castles in the air. Visana is all about implementation, common sense and realism. This way, we can create good solutions and positive results. And the really important thing is that Visana has made the transition from classic health insurer to modern insurance provider, but is still strongly grounded in its roots and values.
Lorenz Hess: We’re always looking to the future rather than where we’ve come from, and that’s what the company will always do. In recent years, Visana has launched a lot of pioneering projects designed to improve the healthcare system. For example, we partnered with medical service providers to become the first Swiss insurance company to introduce integrated care to a region, so that we could reduce health costs without compromising on quality. We want a sustainable, affordable healthcare system.
What are you most preoccupied with in the spring of 2026?
Angelo Eggli: Visana’s transformation. From a position of strength, we want to become a successful all-lines insurer while continuing our classic health insurance business. We set the process in motion in 2024. We are systematically developing Visana into an all-lines insurer. It’s a task that is challenging the company, but also generating an unbelievable amount of impetus and motivation. And we are always open to new partnerships and strategic options because we cannot allow ourselves to become complacent. Standing still is tantamount to regressing. For example, we are continuing to invest heavily in digitalisation and artificial intelligence, not least since AI obviously has a huge impact on us, our environment and our future. Used properly, AI is an effective tool.
Lorenz Hess: Visana is extremely well placed to overcome the challenges of the future. We’re on a very sound financial footing, our employees are capable and motivated, and we have a clear market position and customers with a higher than average satisfaction level. Although we celebrated Visana’s 25th anniversary in 2021, the company’s roots stretch back over 150 years. This is a responsibility we’re keenly aware of. Finally, we’ve grown continuously and post respectable profits every year. And we now provide services and insurance products in a large number of areas. The transformation continues.
Visana is now systematically positioning itself as an all-lines insurer. What is the thinking behind this?
Angelo Eggli: Visana has been more than just a health insurance provider for a long time. We already offer insurance products from the all-lines spectrum, such as household contents insurance. We have noticed that our customers very much appreciate a “one source for everything” approach. It is therefore important to continue to systematically pursue this path and further expand our offerings.
Lorenz Hess: We see that as the next logical step in the company’s development. That’s why the Board of Directors, as the senior governing body, has set itself the goal of establishing Visana as a fully comprehensive all-lines insurer in its 2030 strategy.
What specific objectives are you pursuing as you make the transformation into an all-lines insurer?
Angelo Eggli: Our aim is for customers to be able to source all their insurance products from Visana, from health and car insurance to household contents and life insurance. We want to offer our customers outstanding quality and excellent service even more comprehensively and for all needs. And we’ll continue to let customer satisfaction be our yardstick for how successfully we’re doing so.
Lorenz Hess: It’s important to follow your plans single-mindedly and strike out in new directions. Past successes can conceal dangers for the future. If you get too comfortable, you’ll miss the boat. I’m confident that we’ll be still ready for any challenge in the future.
Visana doesn’t just present itself as familiar, modern and approachable, it has strong sporting connections too. Its involvement in Swiss wrestling and athletics and its sponsorship of FC Thun are perfect examples and have proven to be a stroke of luck. What is Visana’s philosophy when it comes to sponsorship?
Angelo Eggli: Sport and exercise are important. If you look after yourself and your body, you’ll lead a better, more energetic life. That’s why we see promoting sport, either at grassroots level with athletics or at elite level with FC Thun, as an important component of our social engagement. Whenever we do so, we always check that the values of the type of sports we support, as well as the clubs and associations, align with our values and ideas. For example, I’m very impressed with how FC Thun goes about things. Like Visana, the club is unpretentious and committed to honest work and getting the most out of people. Getting promoted to the Super League last year was an extraordinary achievement in itself. And what the team is achieving this season is quite simply fantastic.
Lorenz Hess: We’re also heavily involved with FC Thun’s women’s and youth teams. As a Bernese company, we’re also proud to have sprinter Mujinga Kambundji and Swiss wrestling champion Christian Stucki as ambassadors. They’re genuine, down-to-earth, successful and role models for a lot of children in particular. For that reason, we attach particular importance to supporting children, for example, with the many competitions we hold throughout Switzerland under the Visana Sprints banner.
And finally, would you be willing to share your best moment at Visana?
Lorenz Hess: That’s still to come. It would be sad if you ran out of dreams and things you want to achieve. There have been so many milestones in the past few years that it would be unfair to pick out one particular moment. Anyway, the small moments and encounters with satisfied customers are often the most rewarding.
Angelo Eggli: I’d agree with that. Each positive response that I get from customers is the best moment. And I just can’t get enough.