The document discusses the differences in corporate culture between traditional companies like IBM and newer startups like Apple, Microsoft, and Intel. At IBM, the culture was very formal and conservative, requiring men to wear suits and ties with gartered socks. In contrast, the startup culture was more informal and flexible, with no dress code and employees often working long hours out of passion rather than obligation. This allowed the newer companies to innovate more quickly compared to the rigid processes at traditional firms like IBM.
2. In the video it was mentioned
how traditional and
conservative the culture is at
IBM. Employees, typically
men, had to wear white
starched collared shirts with a
suit jacket and tie.
4. The corporate structure is
rampant at IBM and
everything follows a strict
protocol. These bureaucratic
processes were very time
consuming and unproductive,
and when IBM announced
that it wanted to build a PC in
less than one year it was very
shocking.
5. The sock anecdote can also be viewed as an opportunity
compare the corporate cultures at the newer startup
companies such as Apple, Microsoft, and Intel vs. the
traditional companies such as IBM and Xerox.
6. The newer startup companies were created by young men
who sometimes dropped out of college. Often times
these young men were hippies or more liberal in their
thinking.
7. They may not have intended to start a company, but
through the efforts of their play and their creative
genius, new products emerged that were in high
demand.
8. These new companies,
unlike their predecessors,
had no dress code. There
were no hours to be put in
except for the time you
wanted to work, but in most
cases the employees worked
madly for hours at a time;
sometimes without
showering.
9. Most of the employees were computer geeks or nerds, and
they had coolers stocked with Coca-Cola and other
beverages. It is mentioned in the film, that these
companies felt more like a college dorm than a workplace.