From the EU to DC: A Transatlantic Take on Lobbying Culture

By Jason Descamps, Mavence CEO and Managing Director Global Practice

Having just wrapped up a recent trip to Washington, D.C. as part of our work expanding our global talent and executive advisory footprint, I was struck by all the ways that lobbying feels distinctly different in the US, even if the underlying DNA of government relations is the same as in Europe. Across many conversations with a broad range of diverse Beltway insiders, I wanted to share some of the most striking phrases, insights, and takeaways that I noted down from these contacts. For any government relations professionals with an international portfolio or merely curiosity as to how they do things across the pond, here are my top 10:

1. US lobbyists play OFFENSE

They see government relations (GR) as a function contributing to the company’s growth, and they look for commercial and funding opportunities to go after that open new doors or build on strengths. Playing defense, i.e. protecting your company’s interests and license to operate, is as basic to US players as putting your seatbelt on in the morning: good practice, but safety alone doesn’t get the car started or you where you need to be.

“Lobbying is not Journalism”… The US has a tendency to sometimes see European lobbyists as another breed of “field correspondents”: monitoring institutional and political activity, and reporting what’s new to HQs. Compared to the standard modus operandi in the US, Americans don’t find their European counterparts as proactive, pushy, or assertive enough when it comes to public policy.

2. They have a strong tendency to work TOP-DOWN

American lobbyists are primarily seeking the attention of top leaders. Whether it’s about “getting into one of the tubes that are connected to Trump’s brain” or seeking to influence key EU decision-makers in Brussels from the US, I can feel the ‘bottom-up’ approach we often use in Europe (we like to say that EU lobbyists favor talking to the people who “hold the pen”) is clearly not something that they see as pragmatic.

3. Government Relations in the US is a function in itself…

It is a discipline that stands on its own two feet and is strategically assessed independently, whereas in Europe it is more often an integrated function that is mixed with communications or regulatory functions.

Even more than that, the US seems to make a distinction that rarely exists in Europe between internal facing “policy” people (policy wonks) and the external, door opening GR crew, responsible for translating in-house corporate jargon into something that policy makers can understand. Such a formal difference between the two sides of the same coin rarely exists in Europe.

4. … but even so, US GR is still often misunderstood by HQ or the C-suite

Not everyone in Leadership Teams in the US is familiar with Government Relations, either because they haven’t been exposed to it or because they don’t know how to measure its impact – if they don’t know how to “put a number next to it,” it’s difficult to assess. In that sense, despite a more mature market than in Europe, the function faces similar hurdles when it comes to internal positioning and justification.

A funny yet spot-on expression I heard here: “GR is a bit like a slot machine in a casino, one day it will pay off. But until then, it’s hard to measure the [financial] value of a relationship”.

5. A different cultural and professional lens

I spoke to a few Europeans while in DC, who confessed it’s not easy to be accepted professionally or to effectively lobby, even for highly specialized lawyers. A lot of that comes down to the command of the language, of course. But with English being the most common language heard around the EU institutions, and with native speakers constituting the overwhelming majority of professionals in government in the US, American lobbyists are naturally more at ease engaging directly in a place like Brussels than Europeans are in Washington DC. What’s more, their relatively powerful Chambers of Commerce and the many US lobbying firms that have a presence in Europe also make them more agile and autonomous overseas. And finally, there are some cultural differences around the question of transparency, and the legal framework for how it is implemented – the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) in the US is a law that requires individual and organizations to register with the Department of Justice if they lobby for foreign interests. Not every lobbyist would want such a legal obligation.

6.  A similar evolution path towards an integrated approach

Old school lobbying based on 1-on-1 meetings and direct contacts is dying, if not already dead. Long live lobbying. In an era of “real time news, real or fake”, GR needs to integrate all the communications channels and strategies that will influence policy makers. It must be part of a broader, 360 policy comms plan, which is the business line of many large consulting firms. In this regard, Europe and the US very much align based on my experiences with senior GR leaders on both sides of the Atlantic.

7. An equal struggle for GR to find its place internally

Reporting lines for GR leaders change often. They need to adapt regularly to new hierarchies, whether it is the Chief Communications Officer, the General Counsel, or the Head of Strategy. On some occasions GR is its own boss and sits in the C-suite. But otherwise, they rely on the appetite and level of understanding of “whoever is in that chair”. I think we can be critical about that approach, as the positioning of GR internally therefore depends in practice on the profile of the person it reports to. In an ideal world, however, its positioning should be the result of a clear and thought-through approach from company leadership, independent of individual personality, and incumbent upon CEOs to structure hierarchies and reporting lines accordingly.

8. A different attention given to CSR

While all my conversations in Europe show a significant increase in support for and attention to CSR as well as the importance of ensuring corporate compliance, the trend in the US/DC seems to be leaning the other direction. Moreover, as the London School of Economics insightfully put it: “EU CSR seems to serve as a complement of lobbying, in the US the relationship seems to be one of substitution: the more a company invests in lobbying, the less likely it is to take part in CSR schemes.”

9. Politically Colored: Red or Blue?

I knew this, but hearing so many Heads of GR in DC talk about it made me realize how much lobbyists are perceived as either Democrats or Republicans in this town. Some of the top GR firms that communicate in bipartisan terms about their approach and presence in the market are nevertheless still perceived as either blue or red – been seen as having an affiliation to one ecosystem or another is a difficult assumption to shake. When people recommend others for a job, they tend to give two separate candidate lists to reflect affiliations – a very different approach to Europe where, in more than a decade of headhunting practice, I have never heard one single client say “please find me a candidate who is well connected in (a particular) Party”. It is true that the political landscape in Europe is more fragmented – just look at the European Parliament which is composed of no less than 8 political groups, themselves heterogeneous coalitions – but still it remains, from a European perspective, intriguing to see how DC works in so explicitly binary a fashion.

10. What’s in a name?

While I am not sure exactly what the reason for that is, what is called Government Affairs or Government Relations in the US is called Public Affairs in Europe. But Public Affairs in the US means something different, i.e.Policy Communications. Which, to make things even more straightforward, we also use in Europe. It sometimes leads to very confusing conversations, where you might assume from someone’s title that they actively lobby or engage in direct advocacy, while in reality they serve PR interests.

And it gets worse. Tech calls it Public Policy. Some call it Engagement. Others call it External Affairs or Corporate Relations. Sometimes External Affairs is everything communications BUT lobbying…

Lobbying is a profession that is undoubtedly gaining in professionalization, but both nationally and internationally there is still a very long way to go before it can credibly claim a cohesive, understandable identity and a clarity on par with other key functions.