(FORTUNE Magazine) – GREAT LAKES CHEMICAL CORP. This West Lafayette, Indiana, company has figured out how to live better through chemistry: Stay away from the commodity side of the business and stick to specialty chemicals. Revenues in 1988 will be around $560 million, compared with $89 million ten years ago. By expanding its operations and making acquisitions, Great Lakes has become the world's largest manufacturer of bromine and its derivatives -- the principal ingredients in fire retardants for electronics, appliances, textiles, and furniture. Says Chief Executive Emerson Kampen, 60: ''This is our field. Almost all of the bromine compounds that have been developed in the past 15 or 20 years have come out of our laboratories.'' An increase in government regulation, especially abroad, together with the global popularity of consumer electronics, has pushed demand for bromine-based flame retardants to an all-time high. According to Paul Farrell, an analyst at Goldman Sachs, Great Lakes' profits for 1988 will be up 84% to $102 million. The chemical industry is now riding the crest of its cyclical business, but Great Lakes is fairly safe from a downturn because it makes few commodity chemicals. Says Kampen: ''We are to some extent tied to the economy, but we are also insulated from it because of the diversity of our products.'' Four plants in Arkansas, where naturally occurring hot salt water is rich in bromine, churn out most of what the company sells. In addition to bromine, Great Lakes produces halon, used in highly efficient fire extinguishers; methyl bromide, which goes into agricultural fumigants and pesticides; and purification chemicals for cleaning the waste water from large industrial sites or family hot tubs. Its products are also used in manufacturing pharmaceuticals. With the 1986 acquisition of QO Chemicals, Great Lakes became the world's largest producer of furfural, made from agricultural wastes such as corncobs, and an ingredient in resins and solvents. Great Lakes stock traded recently on the New York Stock Exchange at $53.50 a share. Analysts think the stock price could go higher -- Farrell says to $70 -- if the company could spin off the 40% it owns of Huntsman Chemical Corp., a commodity producer. Says CEO Kampen: ''There's a good chance we will sell sometime in the next year.'' The proceeds will go toward another acquisition.

DYANSEN CORP. Sculpture making has come a long way since Michelangelo labored alone with his chisel and inner demons. Dyansen, a New York City company, takes artists' clay models, casts them in its California foundry, and sells the bronze sculptures in 11 of its own galleries from Soho in New York City to Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. The company represents 20 artists, who either receive royalties or split a sale fifty-fifty with the gallery. The most famous is Erte, a graphic artist in the art deco style, who, at 96, is sculpting. Dyansen gets 50% of revenues from sculpture, but it also sells paintings and graphics. ''They've positioned themselves as the place to go for sculpture,'' says Stan Trilling, a broker at Paine Webber, who likes the stock. The average sale is $5,000, but prices range to $250,000 for Erte's larger-than-life sculpture of Justice. Dyansen plans to open six galleries in 1989, and revenues are expected to rise 30% to $35 million. The stock trades at around $2 a share.

MEDSTAT SYSTEMS INC. How can companies control the ever-rising cost of employees' medical benefits? The answer, according to Medstat, is information. The company, based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, provides specialized software and databases that enable customers to analyze medical claims from employees. The software helps spot areas of waste and overpayment. President Ernest Ludy says employers have come to realize they can squeeze the demand side, the benefits, only so far, and must concentrate on the supply side, ''negotiating hard with hospitals and physicians and negotiating hard with the insurance companies, which should manage care, not just pay the claims.'' The information Medstat provides helps big companies, including General Electric and General Motors, in those negotiations. The software firm will soon serve hospitals as well. Medstat, whose stock traded recently at $10 a share, earned $1.2 million last year on sales of nearly $7 million.

REGIS CORP. Founded in 1922 by a local barber, this Minneapolis company runs the largest chain of hair salons in the U.S. But in the fragmented hair-styling business, being No. 1 translates to having less than 2% of the industry's $22 billion in annual sales. Regis expects to coif its way to $350 million in revenues in fiscal 1989, vs. $192 million in 1988. Its recent acquisition of the Essanelle Salons puts the chain in Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, and nearly 60 other department stores. All has not been bouffant, however: When Regis bought Your Fathers Mustache Barber Shops in 1984, it got shorn. Write-offs hurt earnings for two years, but Regis has begun converting the Mustache units into better- performing salons. Income rebounded in fiscal 1988 to $7.9 million, up 42% from the year before. The experience may have figured in Regis's decision to go private in October. Says President Paul Finkelstein: ''We were tired of doing business for Wall Street.''