A crisis is a terrible thing to waste, according to a widely-quoted remark by Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.
That applies to IT groups struggling to stay ahead as much as to governments manning the bailout pumps.
Corporations are now in downsize mode, slicing costs and functions, and over the next few years they will have to adjust to what is likely to be a vastly different business landscape.
For IT, the long-term impact of the slump will be to accelerate shifts that are already underway.
Like everyone else, IT organizations are now desperately squeezing out costs - through downsizing and outsourcing, virtualization and consolidation, better energy consumption, on new managed services and equipment lease deals.
But for those companies with breathing space, now is the best time to carry out long-term IT planning and investments for the upturn, whenever that arrives.
As has been the case for the past half dozen years, well-run companies will strive to get alignment between IT and the organization's goals. A good deal of the IT will disappear, either embedded into operations or by being outsourced or automated.
But while IT conventionally has been about automation and reducing costs, it is now about improving customer intimacy, speeding up product cycles, mining business information in real-time, and so on.
As the complexity increases, it's less clear to the business how to use the technology. The IT might be less visible, but the IT vision and leadership will become more critical.
This is where IT leaders have to step up and show how their organization can gain a long-term strategic edge by smart investment in IT systems and expertise.
If you're feeling overwhelmed by the size of the task, take heart from this interview with David Fisher, who heads the US Department of Defense Business Transformation Agency (BTA). The $600 DoD spends $2 billion a year on business transformation alone.
Fisher points out that IBM's supply chain transformation took ten years. That's the kind of perspective you need when you're trying to transform the world's biggest army, navy and air force.
As in every large organization, there's plenty of tension between the center and the divisions. Fisher admits that not all of his suggestions are well-received.
But he advises CIOs to push back. "Question every assumption. We often assume that we have to do something in a certain way because it's the policy or the way we've done it before. "&brkbar; But if you have a case that helps everyone to agree that the old way doesn't make sense and that there's a better way, a transformational way, of doing things, question the old way."