Above them is another balancing act. There's a boarding pass (4) and underneath that is a book (5) about creative work. One of them is for business. Business is rarely about the work. But our business is the work - so there is an inherent tension there.
Another tension is between old and new. My iPad (6) and iPhone (7) are next to loads of paper (8), and what's closest to me is paper and a pen. Included in the old is a load of business cards (9), including one of Johnny Hornby's clients, Barry Judge from Best Buy. I have both a BlackBerry (10) and an iPhone, mainly because the iPhone can sometimes be unreliable as a phone.
My iPad goes with me everywhere, but mainly I use it for music. I'm currently listening to The XX, Public Enemy, The Vaccines, Rumer, Adele, the back catalogue of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and all five volumes of the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounges.
There are also piles of things for me to read (11). When the pile gets too big, I start reading them. On the chair next to me is a Paul Smith bag (12). It's a present from Ben Slater (the Future Holdings managing director). It's a bag for travel. This is me rounding things up before I go to Nice for a two-day meeting.
The furniture is art deco, all bought on eBay. My desk is a big round table (13). The best moments are not solitary ones, but when people sit around it discussing ideas and work. Tricky phone calls are conducted pacing around the table. The repetition is mildly therapeutic, if not a little unhinged. That small desk (14) in the corner is an annexe - when I need a landline or a computer, I go there. That iMac (15) is usually turned off - I hardly ever use it.
The picture (16) is of my three kids. Lotte, in the middle, is the eldest. She was seven in the picture, but she's 14 now. The little boy is Bas when he was five - he's now 12. The cheeky one on the left is Sanne, who is ten. She was three in the photo. She probably takes after me the most.
My office doesn't usually look like this. The shutters (17) are normally up - I think natural light is very important - and the room is usually full of people having discussions.
My watch is a Panerai (18), the Italian naval watch. It was a recommendation made by Laurence Green (the Fallon founder). I suspect he saw the blunt-instrument simplicity as a good fit.
My jacket (19) and shirt (20) are both by Richard James. My jeans are by the best maker in the world - Jeans Shop on West Broadway, New York. If in doubt, ask (the Fallon managing director) Magnus Djaba. I recommended it to him and now every time he goes there he buys several pairs. My tan is from cycling. I cycled around 60km in the Surrey hills over the weekend.
That travel list (21) is for 2011, and helps me and my PA, Mel, to keep a check on what countries I've been to, and when I last visited them - just in case one gets left out. I travel so often, I can't recall where I've been.
Robert Senior is EMEA chief executive of SSF Group