I hear you!

Hello Friends,

Recently I had gone out and asked few of my friends, what they think about TopTenStuffs. They all had very positive feedback about the blog and gave me some very constructive suggestions, which I hope to implement soon.

However, I felt that I should also ask the same question to you, my readers, as well. After this blog belongs to you! So I have added a new opinion poll. I would encourage all my readers to participate in the poll.

I would also like to mention here that if you have any feedback or suggestions about the blog or the content or would like to post your own aticle here, please do write in to me at rahulrungta@gmail.com. You are most welcomed!

I look forward to hear from you. Happy Reading!

Top 10 Books of Corporate Governance

The Internal Auditor at Work: A Practical Guide to Everyday Challenges - Page 65
by K. H. Spencer Pickett - Business & Economics - 2004 - 304 pages
SECTION 12 SUMMARY: TOP TEN CONSIDERATIONS A summary of the ten main points covered in the chapter follows: 1. Corporate governance is a main driver for the ...

Corporate Governance and Accountability: What Role for the Regulator ... - Page 128
by Dan Bawley - Business & Economics - 1999 - 216 pages
Vineeta Anand, "Corporate governance shareholders proposals on the rise," Pensions and ... "CalPERS announces Top Ten Target Companies," Bankruptcy News ...

Corporate Governance, Financial Markets and Global Convergence - Page 125
by Morten Balling, Elizabeth Hennessey, Richard O'Brien - Business & Economics - 1998 - 336 pages corporate group. They also show that bank directors are appointed in companies ... by the top ten shareholders is high or there exists a main bank relation. ...

Japanese Takeovers: The Global Contest for Corporate Control - Page 85
by W. Carl Kester - Business & Economics - 2003 - 324 pages
... quite predictable on the basis of the Japanese corporate governance system. ... Nippon Steel's top ten shareholders, which are predominantly its major ...

Keeping Better Company: Corporate Governance Ten Years On - Page 239
by Jonathan P. Charkham - Business & Economics - 2005 - 460 pages
Forbes Magazine, 10 May 2004, lists the top ten US earners. ... term they positively invite executives to 'cook the books' so as to be able to cash in. ...

Services--the Export of the 21st Century: A Guidebook for US Service Exporters - Page 46
by Joe Reif - Business & Economics - 1997 - 187 pages
This includes addressing the quality of corporate governance and ... The top ten CPA firms recorded worldwide revenues of US$34.6 billion in 1992. ...

Responsible Leadership - Page xi
by Thomas Maak, Nicolas Pless - Business & Economics - 2006 - 251 pages
Two of his four books have been rated among the top thirty business ... numerous articles, focuses on issues of corporate ethics, governance and leadership. ...

Corporate Governance in China - Page 50
by Jian Chen - Business & Economics - 2004 - 175 pages
For each exchange, the table provides data on the numbers of companies where the largest, the top five, and the top ten shareholders hold shareholdings in ...

Alliance Capitalism and Corporate Management: Entrepreneurial Cooperation in ... - Page 89
by John H. Dunning, Gavin Boyd - Business & Economics - 2003 - 311 pages
Pisano, GP (1991), The governance of innovation: vertical integration and ... 53-64. Reich. RB (1991), The Work of Nations. New York: Vintage Books. ...

Merger (takeover Conspiracy) - Page 89
by David J. Thomsen - Business & Economics - 1985
"On this sheet you will find a listing of your ten top corporate clients, in rank order, based on revenues for the past three years. ...

10 Fun Ways to Celebrate Christmas

Compiled by Heather Scheiwe

1. Get your friends together to string popcorn and cranberries while watching animated kids' classics like A Charlie Brown Christmas and How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

2. Offer free babysitting for a busy mom in your church while she goes shopping.

3. Pile the family in the car and drive around your town looking at Christmas lights.

4. Drop anonymous notes on your teachers' desks thanking them for sharing their gift of teaching with you. You may want to include a message about the greatest gift of all, Jesus!

5. Make a nativity scene from snow; if you live near a sunny beach, sand-sculpt the nativity scene.

6. Check with your local animal shelter and see if you and your friends can help give the animals their baths. Bring red and green ribbon to give them bows when you're done.

7. Grab your siblings for a fun day of shopping for your parents. After you've purchased the gifts, find a good place to sit and watch people. Try and guess who they're shopping for and what they bought.

8. Try a holiday recipe from a different culture, like Mexican wedding cookies or Norwegian lefse.

9. Read the Christmas story (Matthew 1 and Luke 2:1-20) several times before Christmas; write down some new insights God gives you as you read.

10. Keep a journal of all your favorite Christmas memories from this year so you can thank God for each one and remember them next Christmas!

Copyright © 2001 by the author or Christianity Today International/Campus Life magazine.

10 Tips for Managing Your Career

By Alvah Parker

Here are some tips for those just beginning a new career and career changers. If you have been in a job for a while, these tips may be helpful in revitalizing your career or in focusing your attention on the need to make a change.

1. Take responsibility for building your own career – In today’s work environment managing your career is your responsibility. Even if you are lucky enough to have a mentor you are the one that needs to take charge of building your career. Mentors make suggestions but you decide if the suggestions fit or if they will work for you and then act on them. You must have a vision of where you are headed and then find your own path!

2. Define career satisfaction for yourself – Notice what gives you the most satisfaction and where your passion is. Know your life purpose and use it to guide your career. Once you know what you love and what is most satisfying to you, find ways to do this kind of meaningful work either in your current job or another.

3. Have a detailed career plan which you update regularly – Make a career plan and follow it. Watch for job opportunities that meet your career goals and apply for them. If you miss a goal in your career plan, update the plan and create an action plan to attain the missed goal. Use your weekly career time (see #8) to call people (see #6) who can help you to reach your goal.

4. Build your own brand – Find a facet of your work that interests you and that is useful to others. Develop an expertise so that you are the “go to” person for this expertise. This gives you a competitive edge and you become known for your knowledge (the expert).

5. Track your accomplishments – You can not rely on your manager or your peers to remember and credit you with your accomplishments. Keep a list that gives your accomplishments in the format that states the problem, the solution and the result. You can use this document as a reminder for yourself during your annual review and also as a basis for updating your resume.

6. Build relationships – It is all about your network. Building and maintaining relationships with people in your field and people who are in a position to help you move forward in your career is imperative. Start with your college professors! Find other mentors, advisors and coaches along the way to help you expand your network. Stay connected to colleagues from past jobs who may be able to help you in the future.

7. Communicate frequently – To become known as an expert in your field you will need to write and speak frequently. Work with the leading professional organization in your field to speak at meetings and write for their publications. Find other places to speak and write on your expertise. This will help you to build your brand, become an expert in your field, and meet other people who can help you to move forward.

8. Set a regular time each week to work on your career and brand building – It is easy to get caught up in the activities of the job and to convince yourself that there is no time for working on your career. Doing that may be good for the company you work for but it is not good for your career. Setting time aside weekly to add accomplishments to your list, to identify people to network with and to find meetings to go to is an investment in yourself and your career.

9. Know your value to your organization – Why do others want you on their team? Be very clear on the value you bring to the organization and be able to say it simply and clearly. Take credit for this value and let others know about it. It is part of gaining credit for being an expert and branding yourself.

10. Be proactive – Don’t wait for others to do this. Get started today! In this case the early bird gets the prime assignments, the promotions and the new job.

10 Ways through which YOU can help prevent Global Warming

It is high time now that we start contributing to help control global warming and rising water levels. If we don’t act quickly, cities like London, Miami, Mumbai and Calcutta may be submerged in another 40 years. Hence, rather than leaving our faith at the hands of our Governments and big Corporate houses, here are 10 simple steps you can follow to help curb global warming yourself to a large extent:

1. Get Educated
   Your first step should be to educate yourself about Global warming, reasons behind it and its impact. Only if you know in-depth about the subject that you will be able to spread awareness about the problem around you.
   
   
2. Use Compact Fluorescent Bulbs
   Replace frequently used light bulbs with compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs. Save more than 300 lbs. of carbon dioxide and $60 per year, as they are cheaper and consume less energy.
   
   
3. Keep your Car Tire Pressure at the optimum
   Keeping the tires on your car adequately inflated will increase your car's mileage, which will make it more fuel efficient. Check them every week and save 250 lbs. of carbon dioxide and $840 per year.
   
   
4. Drive smarter
   A cars fuel efficiency drops sharply over 55 mph. Also, at this speed, don't forget to keep your car in top gear and the windows up.
   
   
5. Replace Old Appliances
   Inefficient old appliances waste a lot of energy. By changing them, you can save hundreds of lbs. of carbon dioxide and dollars per year.
   
   
6. Unplug Unused Electronics
   Even when electronic devices are turned off, they use energy. By unplugging them, you can save over 1,000 lbs of carbon dioxide and $256 per year.
   
   
7. Insulate Your Water Heater
   By keeping your water heater insulated, you can save 1,000 lbs. of carbon dioxide and $40 per year.
   
   
8. Use Recycled Paper
   Use 100% post consumer recycled paper. This can help save 5 lbs. of carbon dioxide per ream of paper.
   
   
9. Energy efficient computers
   Turning your computers to a more efficient mode, helps to conserve power. Turning your computer to hibernate mode or low power mode or just turning off the monitor when you are not working on the Computer, conserves a considerable amount of money and energy. Upgrading to a laptop from a desktop can change your efficiency by 90%. Also switching to an ink jet printer from a laser printer can save you another 90%.
   
   
10. Use a Push Mower
    Use your muscles instead of fossil fuels and get some exercise. Save 80 lbs of carbon dioxide & loose some more per year.

10 Things to Remember About Writing Correct English

By Dan Santow

Making the same teeny-tiny errors over and over and over and over again is a huge waste of time (for you, your editor and, if it gets that far, your reader). Here are 10 things to learn, learn well, and never forget:

1. "ly" words do not take hyphens, so you are not a “highly-evolved person” but a “highly evolved person”
2. in the same way that my friend Bruce always says, “Dan, you’re you and I’m me,” commas are commas and dashes are dashes. For reasons that elude me entirely, people want to use dashes in place of the last comma in a series, as in “Irish setters, English bulldogs – and French poodles.” (Seriously, what’s that about?)
3. single entities (the names of companies, for instance) are single entities and are therefore referred to as “it,” not “they,” as in “On Thursday, Chrysler said that it planned to eliminate up to 11,000 more jobs.”
4. “its” – sans apostrophe – is the possessive of the word “it,” while “it’s” – apostrophe in situ – is the contraction of “it is”
5. except in charts and graphs, spell out the word “percent” and always use numerals, even when below 10; so it’s "4 percent," not "four percent" or "4%" or, heaven help me, "four %"
6. prefixes themselves aren’t words, so when adding a prefix to a word you do not need to also add a hyphen unless the resulting word would confuse your readers; it’s "unheard," not "un-heard," "nonresistant," not "non-resistant," etc., but "pro-choice," for instance, and when mailing something a second time, "re-sent," instead of "resent," which means something else altogether
7. don’t use a slash in place of the perfectly reasonable word “and”
8. "i.e." means “in other words” and "e.g." means “for example” and both are always followed by a comma
9. use a comma before “such as” and “including” when the words that follow are an aside (in other words, not necessary to the meaning of the sentence), as in “Arabella chose to take jewelry, including a fancy yellow European cut diamond and emerald ring, a pair of citrine and diamond earrings, and an antique diamond tiara from the collection of HRH Princess Maria Gabrielle of Savoia.”
10. know when to use “that” and when to use “which”: Imagine “by the way” following every “which.” "The 2008 campaign season, which [by the way] started too early, will be over Nov. 4, 2008." The “which” phrase adds a useful, but not necessary, piece of information. So, if “by the way” makes sense, use “which.” Remember, “commas, which cut out the fat, go with which, never with that!” (I didn’t make that up; wish I had.)

10 low-cost ways to market your business

By Joanna L. Krotz - Microsoft Small Business Center

Too many small-business owners think marketing is like a trip to the dentist — something you just gotta do every six months or so.

But when marketing is continuous and targeted rather than occasional and shotgun, business gets easier. If prospects have a positive view of your wares and reputation before you call or before they start shopping, you're that much closer to nailing a sale. The next news flash is that ongoing marketing isn't tied to a price tag. It's defined only by putting the right message in front of the right person at the right time.

Here are 10 ideas for doing that — on the cheap.

1. Take steps to make customers feel special. Customers respond to being recognized, especially in these rush-rush, get-the-lowest-price times. "Even with a Web-based business, good customer service is possible," says Denise McMillan, co-owner of Plush Creations (www.plushcreations.com), an online retailer of handcrafted travel bags. McMillan encloses a small, rose-scented sachet in every jewelry and lingerie bag she sells and also sends a handwritten thank-you note. "The sachet and note cost pennies but add something special to the purchase," she says.

2. Create business cards that prospects keep. Most business cards are tossed within hours of a meeting. Instead of having your card tossed, create one that recipients actually will use — say, a good-looking notepad with your contact info and tagline on every page. "The business card notepad is referred to almost daily, kept for 30 days or so and carries a high remembrance factor," says Elliott Black, a Northbrook, Ill., marketing consultant who specializes in small businesses.

3. Stop servicing break-even customers. If this idea makes you gasp, think harder. You're falling for the fallacy of increasing sales instead of boosting profits. If you stop marketing to unprofitable customers, you have more time and resources for customers who actually grow your business. "More than likely, 20% of your customer base is contributing 150% to 200% of total annualized profit (TAP); 70% is breaking even; and 10% is costing you 50% to 100% of TAP," says Atlanta marketing consultant Michael King. Take a detailed look at your customer profitability data and then direct premium services and marketing to customers who count.

4. Develop an electronic mailing list and send old-fashioned letters. Most businesses have harnessed the power of e-newsletters — and you definitely should be sending out one, too. It's very cost-effective. But exactly because e-mail marketing is now nearly ubiquitous, you can quickly stand out by occasionally sending personal, surface mail letters to customers and prospects. Just make sure the letter delivers something customers want to read, whether an analysis of recent events in your field, premium offers or a sweetener personalized for the recipient (a discount on his next purchase of whatever he last purchased, for instance). "This mailing has to have value to those that read it, so it reflects the value of what you offer," says Leslie Ungar, an executive coach in Akron, Ohio. "Remember, the best way to sell is to tell."

5. Boost your profile at trade shows and conferences. You can easily create signage, glossy postcards with your contact information, product news inserts or an event mini Web site etc & create a long lasting impression on your audience.

6. Combine business with pleasure — and charity. Spearhead an event, party or conference for a cause you care about. That puts you in the position of getting to know lots of people, and shows off your leadership skills. "I host an annual baseball game where I take hundreds of clients to a Cubs game at Wrigley Field," says Kate Koziol, who owns a public relations agency in Chicago. "Last year, I took 300 people and we raised $10,000 for a local children's hospital. Few people turn down a game and it's a great networking opportunity for guests. It lets me reconnect with current clients and impress potential clients."

7. Create a destination. Bookstore chain Barnes & Noble has its coffee bars. Furnishings giant Ikea offers child-care centers and cafeterias. Why? So customers gravitate to the stores to enjoy an experience, to hang out for a while. Sunday morning at Barnes & Noble becomes a pleasant weekend routine, rather than a shopping errand. Steal this idea.

This tip isn't limited to offline destinations, either. Using pay-per-click advertising, you can cheaply drive traffic to a one-time news event or specialty offerings, points out Jay Lipe, a small-business marketing consultant based in Minneapolis. Lipe recently set up a Web site for Games by James (www.gamesbyjames.biz), a retailer of board games, and quickly attracted customers via pay-per-click ads. "The effect was overnight," says Lipe. "Traditionally in the marketing world, it takes weeks or even months to generate acceptable awareness and traffic. Here we saw traffic spike overnight."

Other tips to become a destination:

• Add a free advisory service, whether party planning ideas or investment seminars.
• Add customer loyalty services, such as free shipping for second-time buyers or rewards when customers spend a certain amount.

8. Become an online expert. This is the "free sample" approach to bringing in business. Research active e-mail discussion lists and online bulletin boards that are relevant to your business and audience. Join several and start posting expert advice to solve problems or answer questions. You may need to keep this up for a bit. But the rewards come back in paying clients and referrals. "E-mail discussion lists have been my single largest source of clients over the last eight years," says Shel Horowitz, a small-business marketing consultant based in Northampton, Mass.

9. Court local media. Editorial features convey more credibility with prospective clients than paid advertising does. To get coverage from the local media, whether from the town newspaper, from TV or radio stations, or from trade journals, you need a fresh, timely story. It's usually worthwhile to hire an experienced publicist to position the stories, target appropriate media representative and write and send press releases. Usually, you can work on a short-term or contingency basis.

10. Finally, don't let customers simply slip away. Make an effort to reel them back in. It costs a lot less to retain a disgruntled or inactive customer than to acquire a new one. If you haven't heard from a customer in awhile, send a personalized e-mail, inquiring whether all is well. For a customer who suffered a bad experience, pick up the phone, acknowledging the unpleasantness and ask if there's anything you can do. A discount can't hurt either. Being kind to customers is the smartest low-cost marketing you can do.

Joanna L. Krotz writes about small-business marketing and management issues. She is the co-author of the "Microsoft Small Business Kit" and runs Muse2Muse Productions, a New York City-based custom publisher