World Beaters

By David Robinson

TOMOYOSHI NISHIYAMA CEO, REINS International

Seven years ago, Tomoyoshi Nishiyama wanted to launch his own chain of yakiniku (Japanese-style barbecue) outlets. His background in real estate left him ill prepared for the venture, so he went undercover. He flipped burgers at McDonald's to learn the trade and came away with a strong focus on customer input. His REINS International fast-food empire has now grown to 1,080 locations. (McD's has 3,821 in Japan.) New footholds in Los Angeles and Taiwan mark the latest expansion: Nishiyama hopes to become a top vendor in the U.S. and China. "It's a pretty modest goal," he says. --Reported by Toko Sekiguchi/Tokyo

RITA CLIFTON Chairman, Interbrand

If brand management were a religion, Rita Clifton would be a deity. The wry 45-year-old Brit heads Interbrand, the firm that named Prozac, Viagra and the Mach3 razor. She has just joined the board of Dixons, a British tech retailer whose stable of brands includes its flagship online store and the magazine PC World. Information overload may make branding more important than ever. "People are going to edit out some of what they receive, just to stay sane," she says. "Branding is potentially a very good navigator." And that's great news for brand Clifton.

SING WANG CEO, Tom.com

After a run of acquisitions, Sing Wang's Tom.com looks more like a budding media empire than the fledgling Net start-up Wang joined in July 2000. The ex-Goldman Sachs banker has made the company a publishing, outdoor-advertising and sports-marketing moneymaker in the rough-and-tumble Chinese media industry. He staged a mini-coup in July when his company acquired controlling interest in CETV, AOL Time Warner's beleaguered foray into China's television market. Wang plans to make the channel profitable by using Tom.com's existing sales network to bring advertisers to CETV.

ALEX FERRARI COO, MTV Networks International

Green eyeshades are apparently in fashion at MTV: the bastion of video cool is putting a spreadsheet maven in charge of its international operations. Alex Ferrari, a 21-year finance-department veteran, will oversee the 96 channels outside the U.S. that account for 80% of MTV's viewers. "We've pretty much planted the flag everywhere that we can possibly be," he says. His challenge? Keeping pace with the 40% earnings growth his division registered last year and increasing the audience in developing markets such as India and China, where MTV recently launched a 24-hour channel.

With reporting by Toko Sekiguchi/Tokyo