Companies everywhere are concerned that the return on their investment in technology development (which includes R&D) is inadequate. Their strategies go awry in a number of ways. Technology developed by Xerox or AT&T brings profit to Apple or Sony. Technology developed by General Motors lies fallow. Technology collaborations created to make necessary investments both affordable and lucrative end up in costly litigation, while back at home the central R&D laboratories seem to be hemorrhaging money. And companies wrestle daily with issues of choice and balance: How much to invest in process technology and how much in product technology? Which technologies to make and which to buy? How porous should the membrane be between suppliers' organisations and the parent company?