Forbes considered Millard's requirements - which placed a heavy emphasis on self-actualization and encouraged vast discrepancies between executives and staff - were a key contributor to the downfall of the company,[4] and Paul Freiberger and Michael Swaine concurred in Fire in the Valley: The Making of The Personal Computer, noting that Millard's EST-induced unwillingness to admit a task might be impossible was a key factor in IMSAI's demise.

IMS provided advanced engineering and software management to mainframe users, including business and the United States Government.

[3][6][7] In 1974, IMS was contacted by a client which wanted a "workstation system" that could complete jobs for any General Motors new-car dealership.

Full-scale development of the IMSAI 8080 was put into action, and by October 1975 an ad was placed in Popular Electronics, receiving positive reactions.

[11] The release of the Z80 by Zilog in 1976 quickly put an end to the dominance of 8080 machines as the new chip had an improved instruction set, could be clocked at faster speeds, and had on-chip DRAM refresh.

With most of the IMSAI resources stripped to fund ComputerLand's expansion, and with Millard's attention diverted, IMS Associates, Inc. went into a "tailspin",[5] and filed for bankruptcy in October 1979.