Bloomberg Businessweek: "The Logic of Parallel Lobbying"

Episode Date: April 2, 2026
Hosts: Bloomberg Businessweek team, including [Host Anchor Not Specified], Lisa Mateo, David Gura
Guests:

• Angel Saz, Professor & Director, Esade Geo (Center for Global Economy & Geopolitics, Esade Business School, Spain)
• Demetra Castaneda, Senior Editor, Bloomberg Businessweek

Episode Overview

This episode explores the shifting global economic and geopolitical landscape, focusing on how international instability—particularly in the Middle East—is influencing business leaders' strategies, value chains, and government interventions. The conversation highlights the emergence of “parallel lobbying,” rising industrial policy, and increased protectionism, and also considers the future of international business education amid these transformations.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Global Economic Disruption and Business Response

• Backdrop: Continuing conflict in the Middle East (specifically the war in Iran) is roiling global markets, with lower stock prices, surging oil costs, and disrupted treasuries influencing business leaders' outlooks.
• Legacy Globalization:
  • Angel Saz remarks on the difficulty of navigating current geopolitics due to inherited global value chains from a previous era of open markets, now challenged by new vulnerabilities and risks.
    • "One of the difficulties of today for business leaders is that we are stuck with global value chains that are hereditary from those decades of open markets. And we are now in an environment which is not that open any longer. So you have many more vulnerabilities and risks around you." (02:18)
• Scenarios and Risk Management:
  • Executives are urged to consider the longevity of the crisis, implications of critical passage closures (like the Strait of Hormuz), and the impact on both upstream (supplies) and downstream (markets) elements of their operations.
    • "What we were talking about in classrooms and with executives around in ESADE is to see how they can think about how long we are going to have this crisis...what are the transmission channels, that can affect business strategy." (02:55)

2. Government Intervention and Collective Solutions

• Oil Prices and State Action:
  • Sharp oil price rises are felt viscerally by Americans and globally, prompting a debate about the effectiveness and limits of government responses (e.g., tapping petroleum reserves, subsidies).
• Call for Collective Action:
  • Saz highlights past successes of international coordination during oil shocks, warning of the dangers if countries pursue only national-level interventions:
    • “What works so well...is when we have a collective solution to a global problem. In fact, that's why the International Energy Agency was set up back in the first oil shock, because countries had to coordinate...otherwise we're going to go into a beggar thy neighbor sort of policies. And this can be a sliding slope.” (04:33)
• Rising Protectionism Even in Democracies:
  • Government intervention is no longer confined to emerging markets or autocracies.
    • “Government intervention...it's been increasing even in democratic countries, even in countries where you won't expect.” (05:17)

3. Industrial Policy and the End of Market Sanctity

• Evolving State Roles:
  • The so-called “sanctity of markets” has waned; states are more actively designing markets through two main policy trends:
    1. Economic Security Policies: In-depth scrutiny of corporate supply chains to avoid vulnerability.
    2. Return of Industrial Policy: States are crafting targeted policies guiding industrial development and competition.
    • “Even before this very severe crisis, we already had...economic security policies, where...they're really going down into the detail of how corporations operate...and the way they go after industrial policy. So industrial policy is back in vogue.” (05:34, 05:56)

4. The Rise of Parallel Lobbying

• Shifting Lobbying Approaches:
  • Demetra Castaneda draws out how companies are now engaging in direct lobbying (“parallel lobbying”) as opposed to the traditional association-led model, particularly to shape new industrial policies.
    • "Companies are going after this industrial policy and taking on, for example, lobbying more directly on their own rather than through associations or the way that we've traditionally thought about lobbying." (06:35)
• Global Phenomenon:
  • Angel Saz asserts this trend is not limited to the US. Massively interventionist policies are now seen globally, not just in America or China.
    • "I think it's happening across the world. I think it's always happened, for example, in China...Today we're all doing our own industrial policy. So I think that's not only the US." (07:13)
  • He notes the increased visibility and surprise as the US, historically a ‘leader of the free market,’ shifts towards such policies.
• Implications:
  • The more governments intervene, the greater the incentives (and necessities) for companies to shape the rules themselves.
    • “The more industrial policy we are seeing, the more companies need to then get involved to design those industrial policies, because industrial policy essentially means government going in and trying to affect and design markets in detail.” (07:44)

5. Impacts on Business Education and Global Mobility

• Changing Priorities in Business Schools:
  • Demetra Castaneda explains that while US MBA programs remain highly sought-after, uncertainty and perceptions of insularity are affecting international student mobility and program preference.
    • "US Programs are still the ones that are most in demand...but...there's a lot more happening and movement towards international programs...because of the perception that we are not really the most welcoming place for some of those students and what they're interested in pursuing right now." (08:16)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Angel Saz on inherited risks:

  • “We are stuck with global value chains that are hereditary from those decades of open markets. And we are now in an environment which is not that open any longer.” (02:18)

• Angel Saz on collective action:

  • “What usually works is when we have a collective solution to a global problem...otherwise we're going to go into a beggar thy neighbor sort of policies.” (04:33)

• Angel Saz on the end of market sanctity:

  • “They have given up on the principle of the sanctity of markets for good or for bad.” (05:45)

• Demetra Castaneda on parallel lobbying:

  • “Companies are going after this industrial policy and taking on...lobbying more directly on their own rather than through associations.” (06:35)

• Angel Saz on US and global policy trends:

  • "...it's happening across the world...Today we're all doing our own industrial policy. So I think that's not only the US." (07:13)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 02:18 — Angel Saz on the challenge for business leaders with current value chains
• 04:33 — Importance of collective solutions to global shocks
• 05:34–05:56 — Increase in government intervention and the return of industrial policy
• 06:35 — Demetra Castaneda on rise of parallel lobbying
• 07:13 — Angel Saz on industrial policy as a global trend
• 08:16 — Demetra Castaneda on business school and student mobility trends

Summary

This episode of Bloomberg Businessweek delivers a timely analysis of how geopolitical instability and rising protectionism are transforming both business strategy and government-business relations. Through in-depth commentary from Professor Angel Saz and Bloomberg's Demetra Castaneda, listeners are given a primer on the logic behind “parallel lobbying,” why collective international action remains critical, and how even the educational landscape is shifting as the world turns inward. The conversation is rich with examples and distills the dilemmas facing leaders as they adapt to a less globalized, more state-controlled business environment.