Esade and IBM propose a new resilience model to strengthen companies’ digital autonomy at the board level

A company’s ability to compete and innovate increasingly depends on how it adopts technology and on the decision-making and adaptive capacity it retains to choose providers, reconfigure resources, and evolve with its environment. With this approach, the Esade Center for Corporate Governance and IBM have produced the report ‘Digital Sovereignty and Strategic Resilience: The Board’s New Agenda’. It proposes a model to help boards of directors understand and oversee the digital dependencies underpinning business strategy.

Against a backdrop of rapid technological change, provider concentration, and geopolitical and geoeconomic shifts, the report distinguishes between two complementary capabilities: digital sovereignty, which provides freedom of choice over essential assets and capabilities such as data, artificial intelligence (AI), and infrastructure; and digital autonomy, which enables an organization to continue operating, replace providers, and reconfigure resources when conditions change. Together, they underpin strategic resilience: maintaining continuity in critical operations, adapting to change, and preserving the capacity to act needed to continue creating value.

“With this report, we aim to provide boards of directors with tools to understand their companies’ digital dependencies and guide decisions that strengthen their ability to choose and adapt. Having viable alternatives and connecting technology decisions with business strategy are essential to preserving long-term competitiveness,” said Mario Lara, Director of the Esade Center for Corporate Governance.

“Artificial intelligence is transforming organizations’ operating models—that is, how they operate, make decisions, and create value. The question is no longer simply which technologies a company adopts, but whether it retains the ability to decide, adapt, and continue creating value when its environment changes. Boards of directors therefore need to understand how AI is redefining their processes, capabilities, talent, and competitive advantages. This report provides a practical framework to help them oversee these strategic assets and capabilities and strengthen the strategic resilience needed to create long-term value,” said Ana Gobernado, General Manager of IBM Consulting for Spain, Portugal, Israel, and Greece. 

The power of choice to drive competitiveness

The expansion of AI reinforces the importance of building flexibility into technology decisions. According to an IBM study cited in the report, 71% of executives believe they would find it difficult to replace their primary AI provider or model today.

The report emphasizes that an organization can use third-party technology while maintaining a high degree of sovereignty if it retains freedom of choice and viable alternatives. Provider diversification, interoperability, and participation in open ecosystems all support this goal. Each company should determine the appropriate level of independence for its essential capabilities, taking into account their strategic importance, the available options, and the associated costs. 

Ten strategic capabilities to guide the board

The Strategic Resilience Model for Value Creation identifies ten capabilities grouped under sovereignty and autonomy, ranging from data, AI, and cloud to the digital supply chain, talent, energy, and security. This perspective connects technology with the people and resources that sustain business activity.

The report proposes integrating oversight of these capabilities into the work of the board and its committees, in coordination with senior management. The board is responsible for assessing and guiding digital decisions that affect the business model and overseeing their implementation. Within this framework, the report highlights education and access to specialized talent as essential to understanding, overseeing, and using AI with sound judgment.

An index and dashboard to support oversight

The model is complemented by the Strategic Resilience Index for Boards (SRI), conceived as an indicative assessment tool for evaluating the balance between freedom of choice and adaptive capacity. Its value lies in supporting deliberation about which dependencies are compatible with strategy, where alternatives should be expanded, and how the organization’s resilience is evolving.

The system is completed by a dashboard that tracks changes in critical capabilities and key dependencies, identifies trends, and establishes action priorities. Together, the three tools give the board a structured view for connecting capabilities, responsibilities, and investments with long-term value creation.