It is not, by no means, the worlds oldest company. There are 【M1】______ Japanese hotels d

ated back to the 8th century, German breweries that 【M2】______ hail from the 11th and an Italian bank with roots in the 15th. What is unusual about IBM, which celebrates its 100th birthday this week, is that it has been so successful and so long in the fast-moving field of 【M3】______ technology. How has it done it？ IBMs secret is that it is built around an idea that transcends any special product or technology. Its strategy is to package technology 【M4】______ for use by businesses. At first this meant making punch-card tabulators, but IBM moved on to magnetic-tape systems, mainframes, PCs, and most recently services and consulting. Building a company around an idea, other than a specific technology, makes it easier to 【M5】______ adapt when industry platform. shifts occur. True, IBMs longevity is also due, in parts, to dumb luck. It 【M6】______ almost came unstuck early because its bosses were hesitant to 【M7】______ abandon punch cards. And it had a near-death experience in 1993 since its bosses realized that the best way to package technology for 【M8】______ use by businesses was to focus on services. An elegant organizing idea is of use if a company cannot come up with good products or 【M9】______ services, and if it has clueless bosses. But on the basis of this simple 【M10】______ formula — that a company should focus more on an idea than a technology, which of todays technology giants might still be standing tall a century after their founding？

【M1】