We all formulate IT strategies from one of several states, be it the state in which strategies are survival tactics or the state where the organization, led by IS, ¹ decides to use technology to fundamentally alter the basic nature of the industry in which it exists. Some of these states are considered more desirable than others, some are mere transitions, some offer traps to the unwary, and some are available only briefly and must be seized lest the opportunity they afford disappears.