It's your typical day at the office. Like every other day, it started at 7:00 a.m. When you sat down with that first cup of coffee, you were hoping to get to work on some meaty stuff-strategic planning, ideas for that big project, a thorough review of your staffing needs for next quarter--the kind of long-term thinking that helps your business grow.

But you'd barely gotten started when... it started. Urgent phone calls from clients. Personnel crises. Last-minute meetings. Stacks of documents, checks and other paperwork that need your approval or signature. Suddenly, it's 7:00 p.m., and all you've done is put out fires. Want tomorrow to be different? Then read on for 25 easy ways to simplify your business so you'll have time for what really matters. Put these ideas to work, and before you know it, you'll be finishing up that strategic plan... and maybe even have time left over for a life.

New York, January 10, 2011 – The Consulate General of New York, announced today it will host “Digital North – Creative Opportunities in Canada”, a seminar and networking reception designed to strengthen ties between the digital media industry in the New York metro area and Canada on Thursday January 27^th, 2011 at 6:00pm.

The one-hour seminar will highlight the differences and parallels between Canada and the United States’ digital media environment. The event will include an overview of Canadian tax incentives and government programs available to companies with international expansion plans. The reception following the seminar will provide industry executives with a platform to network and build their cross-border contacts.

“The objectives of the seminar are to create links between Canada and the United States’ industry and to create inward investment opportunities for the Canadian market”, said Karen Kennedy, Consul and Head of Investment at the Canadian Consulate, New York, “Information exchanges and networking forums like the Digital North seminar are excellent ways for U.S. and Canadian companies to interact and explore potential partnerships and opportunities.”

I'm proud to announce that Open Angel Forum (OAF) is coming to Philly on March 16 (in about two months). We're now accepting applications for startups looking to raise angel rounds in that time-frame. Here's a short URL to share: http://ye.gg/oaf. The applications are powered by WizeHive, a local Philly startup.

Portugal ranks 29th among 52 countries surveyed by the Cotec's Innovation Barometer, just ahead of Spain, on a list led by Switzerland, followed by the USA, Denmark, and Finland.

"Overall, Portugal is in the 29th position among 52 countries surveyed, with an index value of 3.52 points, very close to the global average of the countries surveyed (3.65), "the Innovation Barometer. The Barometer drawn up by Cotec Portugal, says that Switzerland ranks first with 5.05 points while Paraguay lies in last place (2.29 points). The place held by Portugal is "very near" the global average of the surveyed countries (3.65 points), although it is below the average of the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, European Union, Eurozone) and the CEE (Central and Eastern Europe), it is the best placed country in Southern Europe, surpassing even Spain (3.45 points). The Barometer is an innovation platform that provides information on innovation in Portugal, through the disclosure of indicators and statistics from the Research, Development and Innovation (RDI). These indicators and statistics will allow for the development of analysis and presentation of data on business innovation, namely innovation management practices. Additionally, a panel of "leaders" was established from various quarters of Portuguese society, which will issue its opinion on innovation issues every six months. At today's event diplomas certifying the management of innovation were awarded to 23 Portuguese companies, including Siemens, Nova base, Everis, SISCOG, Critical Software, and RAR Real Estate. Cotec Portugal is a business association for innovation. It is a completely non-profit organization that was created in April of 2003 to promote the competitive edge between Portuguese companies.

The state of Kansas experienced an economic slump from the early eighties to the mid-eighties. Most of the major industries in the state such as oil & gas and agriculture were not performing too well. This was when the Kansas Advanced Technology Commission (KATC) was born. The KATC, created in 1983 was meant to provide support to technological projects in the state of Kansas. KATC is the predecessor of the Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation (KTEC). During that period, the KATC saw that focusing on technology instead of the traditional industries such as oil& gas, aviation and agriculture could help the state rise from the economic slump. Today, the KTEC continues to support technological projects and companies to push for the economic development in the state.

Every investor is looking for the “dream team” of executives to put money on. Often I find that experienced investors scan ahead to the management page of a business plan, even before they read the product description. That’s how important the people are. The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) role is usually considered second only to the CEO, because financials are critical.

In fact, about 25% of CFOs make it to the CEO position, although not necessarily in a single step. The latest Crist Kolder report finds that the percentage of new CEOs who have prior experience as a corporate CFO has been rising over the past four years. "It's not often, if ever, that we get a client saying, 'We've got to have a CEO who has been a CFO,'" says Kolder. "It's more the reality that CFOs are better prepared than ever for taking the role of CEO."

Each year, we at the MIT Entrepreneurship Center at the Sloan School of Management travel to Silicon Valley for a three-day immersion program with our MBA students who have a very entrepreneurial spirit and interest. While we make visits during other parts of the year, this is different in that it is a 24×7 analysis of what is going on in Silicon Valley. We visit dozens of companies, hear guest speakers from the venture capital sector as well as entrepreneurs, attend receptions with other universities in the area (Stanford and Berkeley), connect with alumni in the region, and visit multiple incubators.

From the beaches of Mexico to the wilds of Kurdistan, the places on this year’s list take you to the end of the world and back.

1. Santiago, Chile
Undaunted by an earthquake, a city embraces modern culture.

Less than a year after an 8.8-magnitude earthquake wreaked havoc in Chile, its capital, Santiago, has largely recovered, the economy continues to grow, and tourism is in an upswing.

Though the quake, which caused hundreds of casualties, was centered more than 200 miles away, many of Santiago’s older buildings were damaged, including the Museum of Fine Arts.

From new offerings by marquee chefs to more modest openings in out-of-the-way spots, here are 10 restaurants around the globe to keep an eye on in 2011, in alphabetical order.

EL PUERTO DE SANTA MARíA, Spain

In the exclusive world of America’s and Europe’s top chefs, Ángel León has been getting some hard-won respect. His 22-seat restaurant, Aponiente, which opened in 2005 in a small port village in southern Spain, specializes in sustainable seafood; it was awarded a Michelin star last year. Mr. León, 33, is an insatiably inventive and curious chef who is always trying to invent techniques with traditional products — using unusual (to say the least) ingredients like fish eyeballs (as a sauce thickener) and plankton.

The State of Wisconsin Investment Board will commit $80 million to top-performing venture capital funds on the East and West coasts, a move that experts believe could bolster the chances for high-growth companies here to raise larger pools of money.

It is the first time the $81.9 billion public pension fund has had the opportunity to invest with the top venture capital pools, which are willing to take public funds' money because the weak economy has made it more difficult for the funds to lure private investors.

Even as a state agency reportedly recommended ending several tax credit programs, Connecticut moved ahead with a plan to expand an existing program to free up financing for a wide range of small businesses.

A venture capital group has raised $72 million for investments in more than 25 small businesses in Connecticut, under an updated state law that certifies fund managers to invest private capital furnished by insurance companies.

Advantage Capital Partners became the first venture capital and small business finance firm to be certified as a fund manager under the newly revised insurance reinvestment tax credit program, a 1994 program expanded as part of the state’s jobs bill passed last year.

Governor Walker has released a draft of legislation to transform the Department of Commerce into the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation.

“Our first goal for the state has to be job creation, but our current government structure does not reflect job growth as a priority,” said Governor Scott Walker. “This legislation will create a public-private partnership whose sole mission is to promote economic growth and create jobs for Wisconsinites. Transforming the Department of Commerce will align state government with our most important mission: creating jobs.”

Want some ideas about creativity? I found some files and ebooks that might be of value to you. Note: these are all PDF files.

How Pixar Fosters Collective Creativity. (updated because the old article crashed.)

Creativity – Its Place in Education.

EyeWire Creativity Cards.

The Nature of Creativity.

2010 was a big year for BNET: In addition to completely redesigning the website, we launched Business Owners, a brand new section on BNET aimed at helping you start and run better businesses. Here you’ll find everything from the best business gadgets you need to the secrets of starting up a business in under a year. And lots in between. Speaking of which, have you seen our library of small business videos? In case you missed them, we’ve rounded up our favorites from the year.

1. Why Great Products Don’t Need Marketing

So far, veteran entrepreneur John Scharffenberger has two huge successes to his name: the wine company Scharffenberger Cellars and Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker, which he sold to Hershey ’s in 2005. Now he’s at it again, this time trying to take tofu gourmet. He explains in this video why he’s never worried much about marketing and branding, and why you shouldn’t either.

I read an article about how Matthew Inman’s web comic, The Oatmeal, generated sales of $70,000 in a single day last year (on Black Friday) and $1,000 on a typical day.

So I invited him to Mixergy to hear the details of how he turned his passion into a business, and how that business enables him pursue his passion.

Updated: If you’re a web service, especially a young startup, you want to get as many users as possible, right? But there are worse things than having a small number of users — particularly when the service you are offering depends on the quality of the content provided by those users. Quora, the red-hot Q&A site that has been growing at a dramatic rate over the past few months, finds itself in that position now: The site depends on high-quality answers, and has deliberately kept things small in order to cultivate a knowledgeable community. But can it keep those virtues when membership is exploding and not everyone wants to play by the rules?

Everyone in the tech world talks about business models. But I’ll bet that if you quizzed a random sample of these people, you’d find that they really don’t know what a business model is. I did just that with my students at UC-Berkeley. Most raised their hands, and MBA student Blake Brundidge’s attempt to answer the question was a valiant one—but none of them really had a clue. The only one who got the answer right was Lionel Vital, a Stanford student gatecrashing my iSchool class.

The reality is that a business model is like the old saying about teenage sex: everyone talks about it all the time; everyone boasts about how well he or she is doing it; everyone thinks everyone else is doing it; almost no one really is; and the few who are are fumbling their way through it incompetently. (Yes, I know things have changed.)