Book excerpt: Today's most successful businesses thrive on their ability to recognize market needs, conceptualize products that will meet those needs, and acquire the technology necessary to make them a reality. This comprehensive book shows how to make this process of innovation and technology transfer work for your company. The authors describe and evaluate the whole innovation process as it would affect a company implementing a new product or service, from the initial identification of needs and opportunities, through the location and assessment of available technologies, to business and management aspects such as finance, marketing and intellectual property.