EDITOR’ S QUESTION
MARY SAHAGUN, FOUNDER & COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGIST, TARGETLINK
For me, the question isn’ t whether digital dependency is an issue – it’ s whether companies have built their dependency with intention or blind faith. I’ ve worked in both highly regulated technical environments and fastpaced digital ecosystems, and I’ ve personally seen how quickly‘ efficiency’ becomes a liability when the system we depend on becomes unavailable.
I believe that the recent outages in Spain and Portugal were a wake-up call. Not because we didn’ t know digital disruption was possible, but because so few organisations had real, functioning contingency plans. Digital dependency becomes dangerous when systems aren’ t built for interruption. It’ s not the tools themselves; rather, it’ s the lack of frictiontesting, decentralisation or analogue backups that puts business continuity at risk.
In my work with founders and communications teams, I’ ve noticed a pattern: the more seamless the tech, the less people know what to do when it breaks. And when it breaks publicly – say, during a launch, investor meeting or crisis – the cost isn’ t just operational. It’ s reputational.
But I wouldn’ t argue against digital reliance entirely. Digital systems are powerful precisely because they allow scale, consistency and data flow we could never achieve manually. The issue lies in how companies depend on them. Do they know where the vulnerabilities are? Have they trained teams to respond without the dashboard, the cloud, the automation?
The smartest companies I’ ve worked with aren’ t trying to eliminate dependency – they’ re designing around it. They’ re asking: what happens when this platform fails? Who do we become when Slack is down? Can we still serve customers if our automation freezes? These aren’ t technical questions. They’ re leadership questions.
So, in my opinion, yes, digital dependency is an issue – but only if we keep pretending it isn’ t. The real advantage comes from companies that understand the difference between being empowered by digital systems and being helpless without them. x
THE REAL ADVANTAGE COMES FROM COMPANIES THAT UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BEING EMPOWERED BY DIGITAL SYSTEMS AND BEING HELPLESS WITHOUT THEM. www. intelligentcxo. com
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