Today is the first day of the rest of MAPping Company Success’s life and there are changes for 2012, some of which involve you.

As most of you know Jim Gordon simultaneously got married and retired from drawing mY generation. I have two excellent Creative Commons sources from which to draw comic commentary, however, I would much rather invite one of you.

If you feel an affinity to drawing a comic based on your experiences in the workplace please call 360.335.8054 or write me. And remember, it’s more about your sense of humor, irony and irreverence than your drawing skill!

I’m also looking for guests who want to share their own experiences in areas of interest to my readers. These include culture, management, motivation, people acquisition and retention and startups in all their gory glory. Whether you are a boss (at any level), a worker or a founder and you have an interesting story, lesson learned or anything else to share please contact me.

Readers seem to have a preference for shorter posts, 300 to 500 words or less; what I’m not interested in are thinly veiled promotional posts, whether for products or services, although I will include links in your (brief) bio.

Wordless Wednesday is history, although Miki’s Rules to Live By will randomly continue as before. If you have a great rule of your own please send them to me, I am always looking for additional useful, pithy and/or irreverent rules to live by.

Also, don’t hesitate to share any suggestions you have for making MAPping Company Success more relevant and useful.

Personally, I’m looking forward to more input, commentary and interaction with my readers.

I hope you had a great holiday and accept my wishes for a happy, healthy, wealthy and successful 2012.

Flickr image credit: erix!

It’s great when VSI (vested self-interest) drives positive happenings anywhere, but when it happens in kid-focused media it’s definitely cause for cheering.

And so it has to the MTV—channel folks love to hate.

“After years of celebrating wealth, celebrity and the vapid excesses of youth, MTV is trying to gloss its escapist entertainment with a veneer of positive social messages.”

According to Stephen Friedman, MTV’s general manager, for Gen X “the humor was more cynical, the idea of community seemed earnest and not cool. It’s the opposite now.”

I don’t care that it’s driven by the bottom line, it’s also a recognition that the youth market is changing. And if MTV thinks that the Millennials have a different attitude they probably do—hopefully one strong enough to outweigh its entitled mindset and need for constant praise.

Viacom, MTV’s corporate parent, even has a new deal with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to make shows more supportive of education, which is truly amazing.

Jumping to the older part of that generation, the current economic downturn is taking many newly minted MBAs in new directions.

Historically, graduates from the top business schools headed for Wall Street. Now it seems that many didn’t really want that path.

“There was a real herd mentality to get into investment banking, noting that prestige, peer pressure and parents often channeled students to Wall Street. But because of the crisis, “there was suddenly permission to pursue something you were interested in that your parents three years ago would have said absolutely no to.” –Jessica Levy, Wharton senior.

“Some students now acknowledge that they were pursuing investment banking jobs largely to placate parents who, having invested nearly $200,000 in their children’s educations, were eager for them to earn top dollar — and some prestige too.”

I find it interesting that the supposed cream of the talent pool, highly (and expensively) educated, our future leaders with supposedly outstanding independent/critical thinking skills succumbed not out of personal desire, but from outside pressures. Nope, they didn’t really want to work on Wall Street with its gargantuan salaries and over-the-top, masters of the universe mentality. Who woulda thunk it.

All sarcasm aside, I do hope that this is a bit more of the silver lining the banking meltdown. It’s not that Wall Street is always bad, but that there are many ways and places to contribute.

“It’s always been about the brass ring and it’s always been about the brand recognition, and for a lot of students that meant jobs at Goldman Sachs,” Emanuel Sturman, director of career services at Dartmouth College. “It’s premature to say the bloom is off the rose totally, but I think students are starting to look at a wider array of brass rings.”

And who knows, maybe working in other industries will enable them to contribute to the common good in ways more meaningful than just writing a check.

Your comments—priceless

Don’t miss a post, subscribe via RSS or EMAIL

Image credit: Idea-Listic on flickr