Why do I love working with small business? 

My response will no doubtedly be because small business owners are passionate about their businesses, and when they want something done they just happen. Our nimbleness means that we can compete with the huge experienced corporations in their own game.

The logic is simple, we don't need to get 3 approvals before something can be put out there and we certainly don't need to spend time getting buy in from 10 different teams before launching a new product or service.

But I feel that we can't get too comfortable with this. Big corporations are wising up and focussing on getting this first mover advantage right, especially when it comes to social media. I'm referring to the infamous OREO twitter campaign, by the 360i agency, which went out at 8:48pm, moments after the unexpected superbowl black out with the simple message:

 "Power out? No problem," which linked to a picture with the caption, "you can still dunk in the dark." It got 10,000 retweets in the first hour.

This was made possible by gathering all key decision makeres in one room during the airing of the super bowl, making it easy for all approvals to be made on the fly. Smart move. When established brands like Oreo are beginning to think of methods to make themselves more reactive and nimble, we small businesses are going to have to think of another tactic to use when trying to outshine them.

I don't believe it will stop at Oreo, with this great success, more corporates will jump on the bandwagon to execute faster, and respond to customers quicker. 

No longer will small businesses be able to lean on their responsiveness to customers but will be needing to find better ways to compete with their industry leaders. 

Perhaps it's time for lean startup number 2 to be written.