Staying ahead in changing times

I was sitting on the beach when the phone rang. It was a photographer who wanted to take a mug shot of me for a newspaper article. I was by the pool when it rang again, this time a message from my publishers. And I was in a car, whizzing down the N332 (the main east-coast road in Spain), when I got a call from a stockbroking company.

In fact, on a two-week holiday, the phone rang almost every day.

The slogan about connecting people not places is true. And the idea of being completely out of touch in the modern world is a myth. (I know, I know, I could switch the damn phone off but, sadly, when you're doing your own thing rather than being chained to the corporate desk you need to stay in touch whether you're on holiday or not.)

All the same, I do try to let a lot of events pass me by when I'm away.

At home I'm a newspaper junkie. Abroad I simply glance at the headlines as I walk by the news-stands. At home I tune in to Sky News at regular intervals. Abroad I look at the local TV, make a stab at understanding what's going on, and then forget about it. And at home I wade through buckets of e-mails a day whereas abroad - well, it depends - sometimes I seek the haven of an Internet cafe but I can actually manage without it.

I have friends that rig up their mobiles and palm-pilots and all sorts of things to receive emails, faxes and every other sort of communication, even in the depths of the Amazonian rain forests, but I think that's going a bit far. Although, maybe I'd change my mind if I was in a rain forest.

Anyway, if you get all the information when you're away, you miss the pleasure of reading everything with the benefit of hindsight when you get home.

I learned about the euro reaching new lows when I succumbed and bought the Sunday Times at the end of my first week.

The currency's woes were courtesy of yet another remark from the European mandarins saying that they weren't concerned about weakness.

Since this pronouncement is generally good for knocking a couple of cents off the euro every time it's uttered, I really feel that there should be an embargo on it. The ex-pats in Spain were delighted, of course, since it meant that the sterling in their pockets could buy another few cans of San Miguel. Actually, it could buy lots and lots more cans of beer because they're a mere 39 pesetas (23 cents) a pop!

We left our friends in Iberia before the results of the British election came in and reversed the fortunes of sterling against the euro on the basis that Labour's second term and William Hague's falling-on-his-sword resignation might mean a referendum on the issue. The British public might just decide that the new currency wouldn't mean the end of civilisation as they know it.

Certainly there was a plethora of conflicting articles in my mailbox on the issue. A referendum on Britain's entry to the euro zone might well be winnable but (as the Irish people showed in our rejection of the Nice Treaty) if you're not sure, you're going to vote "no". And the "no" campaigners in Britain would certainly festoon the lamp-posts even more effectively than the no campaigners over here did, making it a very tricky exercise.

However, the stage is set for a gradual weakening of sterling against the euro - even with the unhelpful comments that emanate from the European Central Bank (ECB).

The level at which sterling could join is still a topic of frenzied debate. Generally, markets feel that a 20 per cent devaluation in sterling would not be appreciated by the rest of the European Union, even though the currency has been radically overvalued in the past year. A number of commentators have suggested slippage of 10 per cent would do the trick.

All the same, it's not a foregone conclusion and if a week is a long time in politics its practically an eternity in the foreign-exchange markets.

And given that the ECB members have the ability to blow the euro out of the water every time they open their mouths, there's a good chance that consistently weaker sterling is not a one-way bet. Volatility seems to be the order of the day.

Sleeping on it might be the solution.

One of the newspaper articles I read and enjoyed while I was away was about the resurgence of the "power nap" as a business tool in the United States.

Since I was in a country where the power nap between 2 p.m. and 4.30 p.m. is a way of life (and which works very well), and since I have myself discovered new reserves of energy since getting an extra hour of slumber every night, I was more than interested to learn that corporate America has now decided that its executives are just too tired by 3 p.m. every afternoon to maintain peak performance.

After the "lunch is for wimps" mentality and the 24/7 lifestyle comes the "sleep for success" scenario. Now organisations are providing napping rooms where stressed out employees can have a little doze to compensate for having to get in to the office before daybreak.

I worked with a colleague who was a master at the art of desktop power napping. He could rest his forehead in his hands and look for all the world as though he was in deep concentration while actually snatching 40 winks at the desk.

And for those of you who think that this is impossible in a dealing room where the phones are going all the time, and people are roaring and shouting at each other, it does, in fact, simply prove that the human body can filter out any unwanted noise - even the phone! (Actually, our phones didn't ring, they lit up and made a gentle clicking noise, making it so much easier for the napping trader). And it goes to show that, when you're tired, even the fortunes of the euro can't keep you awake.

Of course, corporate America hasn't entirely embraced the idea of sleep without profit. The exhausted executive can apparently buy the very expensive Power Napping Kit, which includes a pillow with a variety of pillow cases and a book about the benefits of sleep. Maybe, like most business books, it'll actually cause the reader to drop off before getting to page two. Job done!