Well, the very basic first steps to your initial question are you would create a new theme folder like you said, copy the files, and then you’d need to change the template name in the style.css. Then you’d see both themes in the Themes under the Admin Dashboard.
But the question on how to implement it… that’s kind of up to how familiar you are with HTML and WordPress, plus it also depends on if that’s in your regular job description (the web work that is).
If it’s something that benefits your job, I would really recommend that you get Chris’ book Digging Into WordPress. It does an excellent job of explaining how the theme is constructed, what files do what, how the loop is assembled, etc. If you handle the web design for your company, it could really allow you to really utilize your website to create more business opportunities.
But if you are just looking at getting the new theme online and being done with it, you can just copy/paste the theme and start messing with the html until it’s done :)
