(FORTUNE Magazine) – NICHOLS INSTITUTE -- Okay, managers, time to take notes. The case study is this San Juan Capistrano, California, company, which performs diagnostic tests for hospitals, physicians, and laboratories. The lesson it teaches could be transferable to your business. Endocrinologist Albert Nichols, 56, started Nichols in 1971 to shorten the eight- to nine-year lag between identifying a diagnostic technology and making it available for use. When a new discovery is announced, Nichols contacts the researcher in charge and invites him to become an ''academic associate.'' These scientists help Nichols convert their findings into tests the company can market. The institute supplies each associate with a lab and a technical staff. On average, the new ideas have been getting to market in six to 12 months. The company funnels part of the revenues from successful products back into the associate's lab for continued research and development. If the university allows it, Nichols may also pay him. Dr. Jerald Nelson, an associate since 1973 and an endocrinologist at Loma Linda University, has helped develop several of Nichols's procedures, among them a test to spot an overactive thyroid during pregnancy. Now Nichols's director for endocrinology, he praises the institute for dedication: ''Whatever it takes to get the work done, Nichols will try.'' The company's current roster of 32 academic associates, mostly based at major universities, spans more than a dozen fields, from cellular immunology to genetics. They have developed many of Nichols's so-called esoteric tests, which range from leukemia diagnosis to procedures that determine the best treatment for breast cancer. The company conducts simple tests through six regional centers and also sells diagnostic kits worldwide. Nichols's intimate approach to big science is paying off: Revenues rose 43% to $130 million last year, and profits were up 58% to $4.8 million. Health care analyst Nancy Moyer of Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. in New York expects sales to climb 27% this year, with earnings jumping 70%. Says she: ''It's a class operation.'' The stock recently traded at $12.25, 20 times her estimate of 1990 earnings. And the lesson for other managers? It doesn't take billions of dollars, huge laboratories, or megacontracts to tap into the scientific talent available in the U.S. Try a focused, entrepreneurial approach and a firm commitment to the experts you sign up.

SCORE BOARD -- Pick a card, any card: baseball, basketball, football, hockey, professional wrestling. Score Board will likely have it. This outfit grew from nothing in 1987 to over $20 million last year, becoming the largest national distributor of sports cards and autographed memorabilia. The company buys cards in bulk from manufacturers like Topps and Fleer and repackages them into sets that appeal to collectors and fans -- Braves cards for Atlantans, Red Sox for Bostonians. It also makes a baseball-card board game and sells signed artifacts such as baseballs, jerseys, and lithographs. CEO Paul Goldin hit a home run last year in a deal with cable's Home Shopping Network -- stars such as Hank Aaron chat with a host who does the selling. These pitches generated about half the company's total volume last year. Geoffrey Eiten, editor and publisher of OTC Growth Stock Watch in Boston, thinks the stock could appreciate 100% to 200% in the next couple of years. It recently traded at $8.25, about 11 times most estimates for this year's earnings per share.

KENT ELECTRONICS -- Here's a company that sticks to its nicheing. While giants like Avnet and Arrow Electronics stagnate in the crowded electronics distribution industry, Kent is whirring. Over the past four years revenues grew 34% annually; earnings were up 64%. Net margins hover around 6%, close to twice the industry average. Says Karen Payne of Wheat First Butcher & Singer: ''It's got the management to become a much larger company.'' The stock recently closed at $9.88, ten times her estimate for 1991 earnings per share. CEO Morrie Abramson attributes the Houston company's success to avoiding the up-and-down semiconductor market and concentrating on the stable ''passive'' components -- capacitors, connectors, wire and cable, and the like. Distribution accounts for about half of sales ($48 million in fiscal 1990). Kent's fastest-growing business, contract manufacturing, should widen margins further -- customers include Compaq Computer, Applied Materials, and other companies that are cutting costs by farming out high-profit subassembly work.

GROUP 1 SOFTWARE -- With postage rates ever on the rise, it pays to perform the presorting acrobatics the U.S. Postal Service requires for discounts. Group 1, headquartered in Greenbelt, Maryland, produces software that helps its customers slice up complicated marketing lists and bunch mail to take advantage of various postal discounts. Says CEO Robert Bowen: ''No volume mailer can afford to be without it.'' Among customers that seem to agree: Citicorp, Du Pont, the U.S. Senate, and the Mormon church. Group 1 software makes sending junk mail easy. One package personalizes letters; another provides demographic information. In fiscal 1990 the company posted earnings of $3 million on sales of $20 million. John Westergaard of Westergaard Research & Publishing in New York expects revenues to increase 18% and profits 22% this year. The stock recently closed at $6.38, eight times his estimate for 1991 earnings per share. The ultimate endorsement: The Postal Service recently signed on for Group 1's mail-sorting software and educational services.