Venture Catalyst: The Five Strategies for Explosive Corporate Growth.

• Author: Marshall, Jeffrey
• Position: Bookshelf

Donald L. Laurie. Perseus Publishing, 267 pages. $27.50.

Explosive growth? That's probably not what most executives expect in this environment, even if the idea is alluring. But Donald Laurie, chairman of management consulting firm Oyster International, has more than a few pearls of wisdom to share about how leading companies have prospered by eschewing cautious, organic growth.

Laurie's strategies, which he outlines early on, aren't startling. To get the 'next great business," he writes, companies need to do one of five things: invent it, invest in it, "venture" it (ally with venture capital firms), set up a partnership for it, or acquire and integrate it. These strategies don't have to be mutually exclusive. "Analysis of the five paths and the organizations that have chosen to follow them reveals that most successful venture catalysts experiment with or follow two or more...