A top concern today for CEO’s is how to attract and maintain the right talent. As this will become even more challenging; it’s time to rethink how to optimise talent using a hybrid of the skills from inside and outside the organisation The insiders know the organisation best, they know today’s problems to be solved and the hurdles. The outsiders often have the best ideas, a broader perspective on the future and the capabilities to solve the problem digital platforms create the ability to access the smartest outsiders through crowdsourcing. Social changes in how people want to work has resulted in freelance talent.(In US a third of the workforce) Crowdsourcing platforms combine the freelance talent to optimise the outcomes while capturing the outlier talent. Platforms like Topcoder has more than 1.3 million members, it’s the world’s largest network of designers, developers and data scientists. There are many others like InnoCentive which has solved more than 2000 innovation challenges. Crowdsourcing has fueled creativity, broadened ideation and solved some of the world’s most complex problems. Using the skills of both the insiders and outsiders during innovation enables differentiation...the smartest people can work for you