Apple was oneof several highly successful companies founded in the 1970s that bucked thetraditional notions of what a corporate culture should look like in terms oforganizational hierarchy ( casual versusformal attire , etc. ) . Other highlysuccessful firms with similar cultural aspects from the same time periodinclude Southwest Airlines and Microsoft. Originally , the companystood in opposition to staid competitors like IBM more or less by default , thanks to theinfluence of its founders : Steve Jobsoften walked around the office barefoot even after Apple was a Fortune 500company. By the time of the“1984”TV ad , this trait hadbecome a key way the company attempts differentiated itself from itscompetitors.