I.B.M.'s longevity lessons: core resources, refocused

At 100, I.B.M. looks remarkably spry. Consumer technologies get all the attention these days, but I.B.M. has thrived by selling to corporations and governments. Profits are strong, its portfolio of products and services looks robust, its shares are near a record high. Its stock-market value passed Google's this year. Yet, in the early 1990s, I.B.M.'s survival was at stake. It nearly ran out of money. Its mainframe business was reeling under pressure from the lower-cost technology of personal computing.

"I.B.M. faced the challenge that all great companies do sooner or later - they dominate, they lose it, and then they recreate themselves or not," says George F. Colony, the chief executive of Forrester Research, a technology and market research company.

I.B.M. moved beyond the mainframe and built a business increasingly based on software and services. And the company holds lessons for others.