Integra's Incremental Profitability Strategy

As a small company selling into the fragmented wound care markets, Integra was spending as much as it was making. As a platform biomaterials company, Integra faced partnership risk and stood to only get a cut of end-user revenues. It needed a source of direct revenues. A year ago, the company's new CEO began building a neurosurgery business through acquisitions, initially based on mature, revenue-producing products. The strategy seems to be working; the company reached profitability in the last quarter and now holds the third position in a fragmented neurosurgery market. But the incremental strategy that has brought Integra to profitability inherently has its limitations. Now that it has created a growth expectation, it needs to achieve critical mass, through increasingly larger acquisitions or home-run products.