Cultivator Profile: Creating an Innovation Platform That Drives True Engagement
As Market Access Head at the global pharmaceutical company Novartis, Todor Milkov eats, sleeps, and breathes innovation. In fact, his role is charged with building an innovative culture throughout Novartis’s Cyprus, Bulgaria, and Malta operations. But Todor’s approach to developing that culture is a bit different from that of most leaders. He’s never believed standard corporate initiatives were the answer—because at heart he’s a Cultivator.
In addition to his role at Novartis, Todor serves as a member of the Cultivators Leadership Team (CLT), helping to shape the vision for our community of changemakers. Given his boundless energy and ability to create consensus, it only makes sense that he is also our Momentum Idea Lead. In that role, Todor works with the CLT to help our members inspire and organize groups of people to take action on new ideas at their workplaces—just as he did at Novartis.
The Idea
When Todor took on his role of Market Access Head, he found that he faced significant headwinds in his efforts to build an innovative culture. Years of bureaucratic decision-making had stifled employees’ willingness to put themselves out there with new ideas. Todor saw that manifest in a common corporate problem. Instead of empowering employees to act on their ideas, the company mostly focuses on collecting them.
Todor knew that to make progress and give employees the tools to act, he’d need to shake up the status quo. But the corporate programming offerings available to him were simply too rigid or traditional in their approach. That’s when Todor took matters into his own hands, working with Cultivate to create Unbox, a unique online learning program that guides employees through the process of refining an idea and bringing it to life.
Gaining Buy In
But before Todor could fully bring his idea to life, he needed support from across the company. Getting HR and management on board and ensuring alignment with organizational strategy was the easy part. Reaching out to staff, Todor said, was where authenticity became essential.
“We tried to make it look and sound different compared to the majority of corporate initiatives. What made it different? We used levity. It was about taking real action on real ideas that you care about.”
His strategy worked. Three-quarters of the 250-person Novartis Bulgaria team participated in the The initial round of the Unbox program, joining in activities that both served as fun team bonding and provided space for ideation. Best of all? Four of the ideas generated are now progressing into full projects.
And the impacts aren’t limited to those new ideas. Todor noted that the team’s renewed energy has carried over to standard day-to-day work as well. “I think it helped us a lot to make our work life more vibrant and change the way we approach ‘corporate’ projects.”
Advice for Fellow Changemakers
Asked to share a few words of advice with aspiring changemakers, Todor was quick to point to the importance of a supportive and collaborative network. “Don’t try to do it alone,” he urged. “Think about people who might help early enough—inside and outside your organization.” For Todor, in fact, initial support for the Unbox plan came not from coworkers, but from personal friends. And it’s that same belief that has led Toodor to make such an impact within the Cultivators community.
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