Pembroke: BT uses long-ball approach

THE NEW football season has already taken its toll on BT. The company is staging an audio conference this afternoon, where BT executives from far- flung parts link up with journalists for a press conference. However, some participants will be further flung than the telecoms giant had in mind, like hospital. Darren Vanstone, one of two BT managers due to take part in the conference, broke a leg playing football at the weekend.

'He'll either be speaking from his hospital bed, or under anaesthetic,' a colleague said.

YOU HAVE to admire the entrepreneurial flair of Robert Daniels, a 27-year-old from Bridlington, Humberside. Noting that sticky rock - that staple of the British seaside holiday - was not available in Spanish resorts, he has started an export business so that holidaymakers can bring home rock stamped with Benidorm instead of Brighton.

After seeking advice from the DTI and funding from the Prince's Trust, his eight-week- old company, Sweet Perfection, has sold 8,000 sticks.

THE BEAUTIFUL people of City dealing rooms will be strutting their stuff on the catwalk in a competition next month. On 10 September traders who like to think they have the chiselled features of a GQ model will swap their braces and stripy shirts for Italian designer menswear in the Cerruti 'economic model' of the year competition. The beauty parade, part of the Great London Knockout, takes place in London's Battersea Park in aid of the Macmillan Foundation.

The photogenic contestants include Michael Christie, trader at Smith New Court, and Nick Crosby, fund manager at Guinness Mahon. But a smart bet is Richard Anyamene, an articled clerk at solicitors Withers. 'He's a real looker,' breathes one charity worker.

IT WAS only a matter of time before the information superhighway met the fast food industry. Now, in America anyway, you will be able to order pizza by computer. Pizza Hut is running a trial in the Santa Cruz area where pizza lovers will be able to order their favourite dishes through Internet, or PizzaNet actually.

Dough-hungry users will need computers with Internet access and any version of Mosaic, such as Windows. Orders are transmitted via modem to the local Pizza Hut outlet, and the restaurant then calls back to check the order. This is the service culture, after all.

ANYONE looking for a bit of light reading for the beach this summer need look no further. Stafford Beer's new management book Beyond Dispute: the invention of team syntegrity could be just the thing. 'Syntegrity is a powerful invention in the organisation of normative, directional and strategic planning and other creative decision processes,' gushes the blurb. Judith Krantz, move over.