(FORTUNE Magazine) – LISA H. MELCHER, 32 HERTZ CORP. How do you convince customers that used cars aren't necessarily damaged goods? Ask Melcher, director of marketing for Hertz's car sales division. Last year alone her division sold over 50,000 cars that Hertz decommissioned from its rental fleet. ''There is a tremendous perception that rental cars have been abused,'' she says. Melcher reassures clients by offering 12-month, 12,000- mile warranties and detailed maintenance records. Her average car is a year old and costs as little as 60% of a comparably equipped new model. Who buys them? People looking for bargains and police departments, which often use them for undercover work. Says Melcher: ''What counts is the ability to market your product aggressively to meet people's needs.''

ROBERT W. STEARNS, 40 MOTOROLA INC. Life used to be simpler at Motorola's $500-million-a-year Codex subsidiary. Stearns, vice president of corporate marketing, could concentrate on selling - modems and other telecommunications components and worry nary a bit about what a customer did with them. But now Stearns is spearheading an effort to turn Codex into a vendor of entire networks that offers service to back up the systems. Though profit margins are fatter, the competition is tougher. The transition has meant going toe to toe with the likes of AT&T and IBM. So far, so good. Codex recently landed a $50 million contract from the Defense Department. ''Five years ago,'' says Stearns, ''we couldn't possibly have won.''

RICHARD D. NANULA, 30 WALT DISNEY CO. He may not be as tightfisted as Scrooge McDuck, but treasurer Nanula keeps a firm grip on the till at Disney. Among his recent triumphs: this summer's $965 million convertible bond sale, the largest ever. Featuring quirky notes that investors can swap for the cash value of shares in the company's Paris affiliate, the offering will save Disney at least $20 million a year in interest. ''We hope to have several other innovative financings in the future,'' Nanula says. Before his promotion to treasurer, Nanula led Disney's acquisitions of the late Jim Henson's Muppets and of Wrather Corp., which owns the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, California, and runs the Spruce Goose seaplane and Queen Mary floating hotel in Long Beach.