IBM, 1991

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IBM is one of the oldest brands in our list and celebrated its centenary in 2011. It still features in the world’s top ten most valuable brands, but in 1991 it was actually at a financial low point. It had dominated the manufacture of mainframe computers and then led the explosion in the market for PCs in the mid-eighties, but its desktop models ran on Microsoft Windows and an assault from competitors on all sides caused a near fatal collapse in sales. This was the point at which the company moved back into sales of professional services and found a profitable path which led it out of hardware and back to software.