"I want to connect to meaningful experiences and work for companies that speak to me in an honest voice"

So says today's millennials - those born after 1982. (Sorry if this is TMI but can you believe I sat next to someone on the plane yesterday who never heard of the Millennial Generation ?)

And they are proving it agan and again. Take this recent survey result:

YOU WOULD RATHER A) DO MEANINGFUL WORK B) WORK FOR A MEANINGFUL INSTITUTION

Millennials chose B over A (55% / 45%) Boomers, on the other hand, would rather do meaningful work (78% / 22%)

If you haven't been on earth for a while and don't know about community sites like YouTube, MySpace or even AOL newsgroups back in the day, then you probably don't understand the importance of connections.

Its a powerful love story of brand differentiation that helped sell more than 60 million IPODS worldwide although there are more than 11,000 digital music players on the market

Honesty in communications and interactions are important and although we should do it for its own sake, it makes good business sense as well.

Jet Blue had their strongest sales day ever, the day after the televised emergency landing of their plane was shown on national TV and seen on the very plane having the crisis. It was a brave decision that paid off big-time.

So, with all this talk about putting the humanity back in our workday, the vision and values back in our employee interactions and the purpose back in our branding, why are so few people doing it?

Every time I see a conference on branding it is always those same few companies-- Starbucks, The Ritz Carlton, Southwest Airlines and Costco, that continue to shine time and again.

Is it just better press?

I would really like to hear the great things that other companies are doing to demonstrate an awareness of the changing demographics in our society and the changing priorities that go along with it.