The Long Tail of Expertise

This Element is an excerpt from The Open Innovation Marketplace: Creating Value in the Challenge Driven Enterprise (9780132311830) by Alpheus Bingham and Dwayne Spradlin. Available in print and digital formats.

Use the “long tail” concept to find high-value innovation and expertise where you never expected it.

The Long Tail concept has found applications in marketing, inventory, and beyond. We invoke it to illustrate observations broadly applicable to innovation and to expertise in general. Though I’m not an “expert plumber,” I do know more than many people; and others know more than me, but may still not quite be “experts.” These definitions are continuous: no bright boundary line exists…