I was sitting a home watching TV the other evening when a commercial came on the screen that blew me way.  It was made to look like archival footage of an old gas station being built, circa early 20th century. Snow-capped mountains loom in the distance indicating the creation of an American outpost where the prairie meets the Rockies.  As the time-lapse images progressed over the next minute, I saw the station’s comings and goings.  Kids growing up and heading off by Greyhound.  Cars, pulling in and out of the station getting fancier and larger. A driving piano score creates a tension as the images flashing on the screen go from black and white to Technicolor. The station itself is demolished and rebuilt at least 4 times in those 60 seconds, each bringing us closer to a picture of the 21st century oil economy.

And then the most unexpected thing happens.  The station withers into oblivion, the fields reclaim the asphalt and only the mountains remain.   The punch line:  The new Chevy Volt appears.

In 2010, General Motors plans to launch the Chevy Volt, a “plug-in” electric / gas hybrid that will travel 40 miles without any gas at all.  If battery technology grows on an exponential path (like Moore’s Law is driving the semiconductor industry), by the middle of the next decade, we will see vehicles that can travel hundreds of miles on an overnight charge from your garage.  By the end of the decade ahead, we are legitimately looking at the end of the gas station, as we know it.

So what does this have to do with strategic IT planning?

For the last thirty years, IT strategists and enterprise architects have held the primary roles in the enterprise for understanding technology change.  Because of the nature of the digitization of “Information” and the progress of “Technology” it was frequently enough to be an expert on processes within the four walls of the data center.  But as advancing technologies spill beyond the traditional bounds of the IT department, a new set of skills and a more savvy approach to the politics of the enterprise are necessary for those who wish to continue to wear the strategy badge.  Based on the results of the Architecture & Governance Magazine 2008 readers survey (of which I am the editor), IT departments appear to acknowledge the need to be up to the task.

The most startling result from our reader survey was the increase in C-level involvement in supporting enterprise scale transformation initiatives.  In fact, 56% of those surveyed indicated their CEO, CFO, CIO or VP was responsible for driving large-scale change.  This is up over 500% from our 2007 survey.  Across the board in the survey, as well in side bar conversations, executives are taking a much stronger interest in the sponsorship, capabilities and performance of architects and IT strategists.

Changes like the Chevy Volt occur at the intersection of corporate strategy and technology advancement and this commercial is a harbinger of coming waves of technology progress that are going to turn business models, enterprises, perhaps even whole segments of the economy on their heads.   The energy sector is already headed over the precipice.  Just behind it is everything from medical to mining to manufacturing.

As a strategist of your enterprise, the time is here to look beyond the cubicle wall, past the blinking lights of the datacenter, and raise your eyes to the snow capped mountains beyond.  There’s a change coming.

You can view the Chevy Volt commercial here.