(FORTUNE Magazine) – ELAINE M. KAUFFMAN, 38 TEXAS INSTRUMENTS To Kauffman, the three R's are Reading, Writing -- and Recorded Responses. As business manager for the company's educational products division, she introduced and later expanded the Texas Instruments Learning Path, a system of electronic toys and games designed to teach spelling, math, and language skills to kids age 6 months through 12 years. A Talking Peek-A-Boo Zoo for pretoddlers includes a toy that says, ''I'm Emily Elephant. See my big ears?'' Twelve-year-olds do division on Super Speak & Math, which talks back. Ambitious parents helped sales reach an estimated $65 million in 1990, a 40% worldwide market share. Next: U.S. schools. Teachers in Texas and Arizona are testing the equipment. Says Kauffman: ''The reception has been great.''

SCOTT M. SASSA, 31 TURNER BROADCASTING SYSTEM The latest management shuffle at Turner dealt Sassa a high card: the ( presidency of Turner Entertainment Networks. The TBS subsidiary runs Turner's two non-news networks -- TBS Super Station and TNT -- which together have the biggest audience share among basic cable viewers. What kinds of programs are grabbing the viewers? Plenty of quality cartoons, classic (not slasher) movies, and dozens of NFL and NBA games. Explains Sassa, who as a University of Southern California student worked as a Disneyland guide: ''In a crowded media environment the key to establishing a position is developing a clear personality.''

LANCE B. LUNDBERG, 34 ICON INTERNATIONAL Credit-crunch jitters? Excess capacity? Don't worry. Lundberg, CEO of ICON, uses that ancient means of commerce, barter, to encourage his customers to buy things they might not otherwise be able to afford -- and to sell what they want to unload. Client Sharp Electronics traded a load of laptop computers for $4.1 million in TV and magazine ads, plus more than $2 million in cash. ICON had the ads from previous barters and sold the laptops through its own distribution system, which contributed to Lundberg's estimate of $23 million in revenues for 1990. The former Booz Allen & Hamilton management consultant has also traded cruises for video equipment, among other things. But a huge emerald he was offered ''wasn't barterable,'' Lundberg says, and so he turned it down. - R.S.T.