The world has moved from rules to raw power – and that power is increasingly
exercised digitally. Denmark and Europe have made themselves
efficient, flexible and digitalized. But in doing so, we have also made
ourselves vulnerable. When critical digital services are owned, operated
and controlled beyond our reach, access can in principle be restricted
at a click of a mouse. Sovereignty is not a moral choice or an IT detail. It
is a strategic condition.
Digital sovereignty gives management and the board a new language for
dependence, freedom of action and resilience. The book introduces a
digital dependency score that makes supplier dependency visible and
measurable, and a five-level maturity model that shows the way from ad
hoc decisions to ongoing optimization. With a scenario analysis, the concepts
are translated into concrete preparation: What do you do if conditions
change, access is restricted, or geopolitical shocks hit your digital
foundation?
The book is written for IT departments, companies and their boards - but
also contains a whole chapter on the public sector as a major consumer
of digital solutions and the paradox of being the most digital and at the
same time the least sovereign.
If this book has one ambition, it is to turn digital sovereignty into a concrete
management project. Not as fear, but as strategy. Not as a slogan,
but as a capability. This is the book for those who want to control dependency
- before the dependency controls them.
Jan Damsgaard is a professor at Copenhagen Business School (CBS) and
one of Denmark’s most significant voices in the intersection between
technology, business and geopolitics. He researches and teaches digital
transformation, digital platforms, AI, blockchain and technology economics
- and continuously advises companies and public actors on strategic
tech choices. With a keen eye for how digital infrastructures create
dependence, power and lock-in, he translates complex mechanisms
into management-relevant decision frameworks. In this book, he brings
together many years of work with digital markets and corporate strategy
in a practical and uncompromising analysis of what digital sovereignty
means - and how it can be managed.
