GASPE, QUEBEC -- It's amazing how quiet things are right now at work.  Clients are away.  Bosses gone.  People on holiday.  You can hear the echo.  Even down the Internet connection.  But I don't think we should be deceived.  There's a lot that goes on in the summer.

For one thing it's only summer in the northern hemisphere.  And there are usually some very interesting business moves in the summer.  How many people are affected by these stories of the past week?

• First National Bank of Nevada and First Heritage Bank of California are added to the listed of defaulted US banks.
• Ryanair's Q2 profits fall 85% and its share price 25% when that is announced.
• BAE Systems paid GBP531m for the data protection company Detica.
• EDF tries and fails to buy British Energy
• Tesco signals that its going into banking in a big way

And that was just last Monday and Tuesday.  But for many people those events won't have happened because they were on holiday.

For others they will see opportunities and chances while sitting in the office this week and in the weeks to come that others won't.  In some respects those working away in the heat of the northern summer have an advantage.  In part because they will probably take holidays in September or May when other people are not on holiday.  But they will also see things and do things that will put them ahead.

When everyone gets back in a few weeks' time, they shouldn't be surprised to find that some things have moved on. 

/df