Businessmodel of Loews Corporation

Customer Segments

Loews provides a diverse range of products and services, and as such serves a broad spectrum of customers, including individuals, commercial, and institutional entities. The Company’s customers span the following segments:

• Medical and Healthcare, including allied medical facilities, life science companies, dentists, physicians, hospitals, and nurses and other medical practitioners;
• Commercial and Small Business, inclusion small and middle market business, as well as large corporations across multiple commercial sectors, and insurance companies;
• Oil and Gas, comprising major and independent oil and gas companies, government-owned oil companies. natural gas producers, oil and gas distribution companies, marketers, electric power generators, industrial entities, and interstate and intrastate pipelines; and
• General Consumers, comprising individuals, families, and professionals who are served through the Company’s chain of hotels. Loews includes several large oil and gas companies among its customers, namely Petróleo Brasileiro, ExxonMobil, and Anadarko.

Loews primarily serves customers across its native US. The Company, however, also serves an international customer base through several of its operating units, including across Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Africa, and the Middle East.

Value Propositions

Loews provides value to its customers in the following ways:

• Its diverse range of products and services, with the Company providing a varied portfolio of products and services, including insurance, financial services, offshore oil drilling services, and gas pipeline and distribution services, to a diverse customer base;
• Its international service reach, with the Company serving an extensive domestic customer base in the US, as well as customers from various industries across Latin America, Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa;
• Its specialist personnel, with the Company employing a range of specialist technical personnel across its various operating segments, including specialist oil, gas, and insurance professionals, as well as experienced industry executives; and
• Its reputation and track record, with the Company established as reliable provider of various services across multiple industries, and serving a number of high-profile clients, including ExxonMobil and Anadarko. ### Channels

Loews operates a website at www.loews.com, through which it provides information on its various operating divisions, products, services, and locations. The Company also operates websites for its individual operating segments: www.cna.com, www.loewshotels.com, www.bwpmlp.com, and www.diamondoffshore.com.

The Company’s CNA Financial segment operates an online customer portal, through which customers can find appropriate insurance agents and pay bills. The Company provides much of its insurance services through a network of brokers, independent agencies and managing general underwriters, with CNA Financial also operating its own in-house teams of sales and support staff.

The Loews Hotels segment operates an online portal through which customers are able to browse hotels, make reservations, and access loyalty benefits directly. The Company’s hotel chain also serves customers through its telephone reservations team, as well as through its chain of upscale hotels across the US and Canada.

Diamond Offshore provides its services to customer on-site, with sales made through its dedicated in-house sales force operating out of offices across the US, Mexico, Brazil, Scotland, and Singapore. Similarly, Boardwalk Pipeline operates its own in-house sales force and provides services through its network of pipelines and distribution infrastructure.

Customer Relationships

Loews provides products and services to customers on a self-service basis through its CNA Financial and Loews Hotels portals, which respectively enable customers to pay bills and find agents, and search hotels and make room reservations without interacting with sales personnel. Both segment segments also provide more personalised sales assistance through sales and support teams. Loews Hotels additionally provides personalised services to customers through its in-hotel staff, who are available to provide assistance to customers in person.

Both Diamond Offshore and Boardwalk Pipeline agree sales contracts primarily through their respective direct sales teams, who consult directly with customer over a period of time to ensure that their individual needs and requirements are met. The Company’s seeks to establish longstanding relationships with these customers, with contracts either agreed on a multi-year basis or a project-by-project basis.

All of Loews’s operating segments offer ongoing support to customers, who are able to contact the relevant departments and offices over the phone or online. The Loews Hotels segment also provides support through an online chat service. Additionally, Loews operates a LinkedIn accounts, and its segments operate separate social media accounts with Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, through which it is able to interact directly with customers.

Key Activities

Loews Corporation is a holding company. The Company operates through its subsidiary companies, providing commercial property and casualty insurance products; offshore oil and gas drilling services; natural gas and natural gas liquids storage, processing, and distribution services; and hotel operation and management services.

The Company’s principal operating subsidiaries double as its core operating business CNA Financial Corporation, Diamond Offshore, Boardwalk Pipeline, and Loews Hotels. CNA’s insurance products include commercial property and casualty coverages, as well as risk management, information services, warranty and claims administration.

Diamond Offshore is engaged, through its subsidiaries, in the business of operating drilling rigs that are chartered on a contract basis for fixed terms by companies engaged in the exploration and production of hydrocarbons.

Key Partners

Loews works closely with a broad range of companies and organisations across its multiple operating segments. These partners include:

• Supplier and Vendor Partners, comprising suppliers of tools, materials, technologies, and services that are utilised across the entire enterprise, as well as individually across the Company’s operating segments;
• Rewards Scheme Partners, comprising various commercial businesses and retailers that provide rewards as part of the Loews Hotels loyalty program;
• Brokerage and Agency Partners, comprising a network of independent insurance brokers, insurance agents, and managing general underwriters that provide insurance services on behalf of the Company’s CNA Financial segment;
• Drilling and Processing Partners, comprising various offshore drilling and oil and gas companies that support the drilling, processing and distribution services of the Company’s Diamond Offshore and Boardwalk Pipeline segments; and
• Joint Venture Partners, comprising companies across various industries that collaborate with the Company’s various segments on projects and services through mutually owned entities. Loews Hotels’s rewards partners include American Express, Universal Orlando, Sprout, and Hertz. Diamond Offshore has partnered with GE Oil and Gas, while CNA Financial has partnered with Axis Brokers.

Key Resources

Loews’s key resources are its IT and communications infrastructure, its portfolio of hotel properties, its gas processing and pipeline distribution infrastructure, its drilling equipment and tools, its sales channels, its partnerships, and its personnel.

Loews’s multiple operating segment own and or lease a broad portfolio of properties across the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East, including offices, hotels, warehouses and storage facilities, which are key to its ongoing operations.

Cost Structure

Loews incurs costs in relation to the development of its online platform, the maintenance of its IT and communications infrastructure, the management and operation of its hotel chain, the operating of its processing and distribution infrastructure, the procurement of supplies and equipment, the operation of its sales channels, the implementation of marketing and advertising campaigns, the processing of insurance claims, the management of its partnerships, and the retention of its personnel.

In 2015 Loews accrued total operating costs in the amount of $13.17 billion. This included insurance claims and policyholder benefits totalling $5.38 billion, contract drilling expenses totalling $1.23 billion, and other operating expenses – including property, plant and equipment costs – in the amount of $4.50 billion.

Revenue Streams

Loews generates revenue in a variety of ways through its four core operating segments:

• CNA Financial, comprising revenue derived from the provision of insurance and risk management services;
• Diamond Offshore, comprising revenue derived from the provision of contract drilling services;
• Boardwalk Pipeline, comprising revenue derived from the provision of gas distribution and processing services; and
• Loews Hotels, comprising revenue derived from the provision of various hotel reservation and related services. In 2015 Loews generated total revenue of $13.42 billion, down slightly on the $14.33 recorded by the Company in 2014. The majority of this revenue, around $9.10 billion, was generated by the Company’s CNA Financial segment. The majority of the Company’s remaining revenue was generated by the Company’s Diamond Offshore segment, which recorded annual revenue of $2.43 billion.