Cultivators Profile: Sparking Innovation at Alcon Despite Social Distancing
When two innovative PhDs with a passion for vision care realize they can't spark new collaborations with their colleagues through serendipitous run-ins anymore, they quickly establish a new way for people to share their ideas.
Carolina Kunnen has worked at Alcon, a medical company specializing in eye care products, for three years. Her career began fitting patients with contact lenses at a clinical practice in the Netherlands; now, she's part of developing new innovative contact lenses for patients all over the world.
David Borja has been with Alcon for over a decade. As a lifelong myope, he is inspired to design and build innovative optics that help people see.
Highly caffeinated during their coffee breaks, Carolina and David would run into colleagues and have sparks of innovation, which organically spun into new projects and collaborations across the organization. But when social distancing protocols prevented these caffeine-induced chance meetings, Carolina and David worked together to develop a new way to connect the people of Alcon with the goals of spreading ideas, connecting people, and cultivating a collaborative environment.
Their idea? Produce a vlog to increase awareness of new capabilities in vision care. If they couldn't rely on serendipitous run-ins for knowledge-sharing and off-the-cuff collaborating, they were determined to create their own network for it.
Keep in mind, internal community building is not part of Carolina or David's official roles. Carolina works in Clinical Development & Medical Affairs, while David works in Lens Design & Metrology (we'll learn what that means during our March 18 live stream.)
While many Cultivator stories involve pitching an idea and getting buy-in from senior leaders, this one took a slightly different direction. Thanks to a culture of encouragement at Alcon, Carolina and David could move swiftly to bring their idea to their fellow employees.
Drawing inspiration from each other, they wasted no time. In less than one week, they recorded their first video. After a few weeks of editing, they shared their first video with a small group of colleagues. When asked how and who they pitched their idea to, Carolina said, "We just did it, but immediate positive feedback encouraged us to start a Yammer Community."
People at Alcon immediately took notice. David says that the overwhelmingly positive response has created more interest from other departments who want to be featured. "We're getting reactions that people can't wait to watch the next vlog. It's given us visibility, and we have established new connections and collaborations."
Carolina & David show up every day committed to the organization's vision, bringing fresh insights and new ideas to work that may or may not directly apply to their job description. These are the signs of Cultivators at work.
When asked about what they've learned since launching their first vlog, Carolina said, "that our words and actions can inspire others.” David added, “...and that rejection is just a detour to something better.”
Believe it or not, there’s more to Carolina and David than contact lenses and vlog episodes. We asked them a few fun questions, too. Check out their answers below:
Favorite line from a movie/series:
Caro: I can’t even remember song lyrics, let alone movie quotes! LOL!!!
David: “It’s what the plants crave.” (Idiocracy)
Favorite news source/blog:
Caro: Nu.nl (Dutch news)
David: Reuters/NPR
Favorite app:
Caro: WhatsApp (to stay in touch with family and friends all over the world)
David: Instagram (for meme inspiration)
Favorite board game of all time:
Caro: Card games
David: Poker & Uno
Favorite YouTube videos:
Caro: TEDx videos & Kara & Nate Travel Vlog
David: TEDx & Technology videos
Favorite holiday:
Caro: Christmas 🎄
David: Halloween 🎃
Best compliment you ever received:
Caro: That I connect people
David: When my son congratulated me for my first patent
If you could live in any time period, what would it be?
Caro & David: The future!!!
What children’s character can you relate with most (and why)?
Caro: Alfred Jodocus Kwak (A Dutch adventurous duckling that lives in a wooden shoe and sings ‘I am so happy today’)
David: Spiderman
Do you hang out with friends more via the internet or in person?
Caro & David: Now online, but highly prefer in person (we’re extroverts)
To hear more about their idea and how they made it happen, listen to their live stream hosted on March 18, 2021.
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