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Since the end of the 1980s the state has been engaged in a withdrawal from the management of nationalized businesses. The institutional environment for industrial firms has changed considerably as a result. Firms have internationalized and a number of markets have been liberalized. What has been the result of these changes for relations between the state and big business? In this article I set out to respond to this question looking at the case of the energy sector, in which the state has played a major shareholder role since the beginning of the 1990s. In considering the managers of the largest firms in this sector as business resources, I will identify the strategies implemented by these firms, which reveal recourse to the state and notably the political sphere. The social characteristics of energy sector managers have evolved in two directions during the last two decades. The firms have it both ways, exhibiting their independence from the state through boards of directors, while reinforcing informal ties with the political sphere through their executive committees.