In an Information Week article on smart cards in retail, Patrick Gauthier, Visa U.S.A.'s senior VP of smart-card applications, said that tech-savvy retailers are taking advantage of the slower economy to leap-frog competitors.

"Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France by relentlessly attacking his opponent not on a long, flat run, but in the mountains," Gauthier says. "It's on the tough terrain that you see the difference between leaders and followers." Companies that invest in IT during tough times will emerge as leaders, he says.