Who: Georgia Mihalcea
What: Host & Producer at "We Are Solvers"
Hero of: Patterns For Success (Culture Segment)
Where: Bucharest, Romania
Q: How did you find HeroX?
A: I am part of many solvers communities. We are friends and we exchange information about open innovation platforms as we discover them. An American friend of mine referred me to HeroX to me a few months ago.
Q: What has your experience with HeroX been like?
A: HeroX is the first OI platform I know with such a friendly and supporting model towards its solvers' community!
The communication is great! My prize was awarded quickly.
HeroX offers top tier transparency. Far more than the “black box” models commonly seen in the OI marketplace.
This has been a very warm and enriching experience.
Aside from solving challenges, it’s a true pleasure to spend time reading the challenges posted on HeroX, including the ones that are out of my range. Highly creative challenge design and copywriting. HeroX stands to become a high profile innovation catalyst.
Q: How do you suggest HeroX could improve as a platform?
A: Four Ideas:
- Make a Top 10 List with shortlisted solutions to one challenge (not only with its winners) in order for solvers to have a better view regarding their competitive advantage. This could be a strong motivator for professionals deciding to engage in a competition.
- Provide solvers a minimum amount of feedback from the challenge sponsors/seekers (at least for the shortlisted solutions, let’s say the TOP 10 above)
- Making annual TOPs with the best solvers from the community (i.e. for the most award amount, for the most awarded challenges, most popular, etc)
- Turn the list of winning Solvers into a community and into a recruitment talent pool for worldwide organizations, as many solvers are high profile professionals.
Q: What is your “day job” -or- what do you do when you’re not innovating on HeroX?
A: In the last year, I was the general manager of a research and innovation cluster in my home country. I also take real estate, cinematography and TV productions, and digital marketing and copywriting working assignments . Most of my free time goes on solving problems, keep the We Are Solvers (www.wearesolvers.com) video production going, and writing film scripts.
In short, on my passions.
Q: What is your life’s purpose?
A: To turn all my known and unknown (yet) passions into strong enough and peaceful ways of living. If by redesigning yourself, you also redesign small parts of this world for the better, that is more than one can ask for. This happened to me through problem solving. It adds meaning to life.
Q: Who is a living hero that you admire?
A: Problem solvers!
If you look at the big picture, and followed these rogue problem solvers, you’d see how much these people influence and impact the world!
As individuals and groups, you’d be astonished by the lives of solvers.
It’s impossible to state how many communities have a better life or business thanks to the worldwide networks of “unknown” and unsung solvers.
This is why I started the We Are Solvers project! I work to highlight as many solvers as possible. I work to reveal their stories and to provide the market a unique perspective upon open innovation coming directly from the front line, from champions.
Q: Which superhero or fantasy character do you identify with most?
A: I wouldn’t say “identify with”. For example, I was fascinated by the way of how human nature is reflected in the character of Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader. [As Yoda Says:]
Q: What is your primary creative pursuit?
A: To build a toolkit that enables me to turn visions and dreams into reality while staying loyal and connected with my core and values.
Q: What has taken place since winning Patterns for Success?
A: “Patterns for Success” was a very special award for me because it allowed me to mark a highly challenging era of my life in a beautiful and beneficial way. It was very close to my heart challenge. As it happened recently and the sponsor (Berenyi Incorporated) plan to turn the awarded proposals into a guiding book for small business owners community, a community I was part of for over a decade, it is too early to say. It made me happy. And it made my cry. The incentive innovation challenge won during that time was the 30th challenge solved in my portfolio.
Besides making me an “alien” for the traditional recruiting market and boosting my revenues in difficult times, nothing really changed. In fact, the better you become in this process and the more challenges you win, your life becomes harder. You turn into a sort of an alternative activist for world’s problems, a highly creative and independent individual, a breed that decision-makers don’t know what to do with. There is a lot of education and informing needed to teach influencers how to use this community further as it has tremendous potential. As “the game ain’t over” and as the OI market becomes more popular, let’s review this question after a few more years.
“You turn into a sort of an alternative activist for world problems… a breed that decision-makers don’t know what to do with.”
I feel it a unique kind of privilege to share the same times with so many and unique world changers, as problem-solvers are. I hope to find the energy and means to produce more We Are Solvers episodes in the future, to better reveal this community to the world.
We need to create more bridges, to connect more information and more dots in order to save more time from our lives and reconvert that time and vitality to do better and more constructive things. Eventually, to enjoy life more and to add more meaning to it.
Q: What else are you up to?
A: In the present I work on a challenge called “Recovering a lost opportunity: What can people do during the time of medical treatment?” and I am waiting for the results for a US-based film production fund for a beautiful short film concept production that I wrote, based on romance photographs around the world.
