Model Management: Mobile phones - only trust them as far as you can throw them

In its latest weekly column for silicon.com, the team at business management portal FTdynamo reveals how the cellphone has spawned a bizarre Finnish festival...

A Motorola arcs gracefully through the air, its 'battery low' sign flashing happily. It is followed by a Nokia, tunelessly spewing the opening bars of the William Tell Overture as it passes overhead. And then an Ericsson whistles by, informing anyone in earshot that "the line is busy, please try later". The Ericsson hits the ground first with a splintering crack that warms the heart of its assailant, Erno Riihelä, the current mobile phone-throwing world record holder. A truly riveting recent report, The Finns and the Future Information Society, revealed that nearly 80 per cent of Finnish households own a mobile phone. This, if nothing else, makes Finland the ideal venue for the second mobile phone-throwing world championships. On August 24, an international field gathered at the laid-back town of Savonlinna, in the heart of the Finnish lakes, to try and beat Riihelä's 48-metre toss. Alternatively, of course, they could have just indulged in the pure pleasure of destroying these bleeping, blurting monsters that have become the bane of so many lives over recent years. The idea for the toss-fest came from the frustration of lost signals, engaged tones, and of course, the best efforts of Rossini shattering the silence at any given opportunity. The competition is organized by the translating and interpreting company, Fennolingua. Apparently, "turn that ******* phone off" translates well into over 60 languages. The championship harks back to a golden age when we managed to conduct business without a mobile and, more importantly, our partners were able to cope without knowing that we might, quite possibly, be about 10 minutes late for dinner. The championships feature freestyle throwing, with marks given for style and aesthetics, and the more traditional over the shoulder toss, a category purely based on length. In the first championship last year, people entered from all over the world and... oh, damn, sorry, must go, my mobile's ringing... FTdynamo, the new management website from FT Knowledge, where the latest in business thinking is put into context and delivered to your desktop, is now live. Visit us at www.ftdynamo.com and register for a FREE two week trial subscription.