Apple is one of the most popular and powerful companies in the United States, and last week it became the most valuable as well. That news brought back some personal memories of my time at IBM, when it was the most powerful and valuable technology company in the world. For a long time, it seemed virtually untouchable. However, IBM went off the rails in the late 1980s, and by the early 1990s the stock had collapsed, the CEO had been fired, and the company had announced massive, historic layoffs.