What You Should Do
By Kim S. Nash | Posted 2002-09-04

Fewer than 40 technology executives in the entire Fortune 500 are paid enough to be publicly reported. Here's who made the cut.
Making the Top-Paid List
- Avoid some industries. Utility, drug, oil, and diversified financial companies are some of the realms in which other senior executives almost always make more than CIOs
- Build alliances. Work strategically among other senior managers to become a full partner in setting company's direction
- Hang tough. Length of time on the job influences compensation and stature
- Lose the inferiority complex. Confidently change the way the CEO views technology
- Talk in the other fellow's language. Use business terms to describe your initiatives' accomplishments, not technology jargon
- Focus on what the CEO cares about. Pick out the company's key business goals and plan a technology project to satisfy at least part of each