Project Management: The Emerging "Must Have" Business Competency
Are you responsible for managing projects? If you answered “yes” to this
question, you’re in good company.
From its late 1950s origin as an engineering and construction process to its unrealistic portrayal on “The Apprentice” reality TV show, project management has become an increasingly visible competency in the business world. Project management today is really neither the process of rocket scientists nor the folly of reality show contestants.
More accurately, project management is a recognized credential where skilled project managers standardize and minimize routine tasks, customize processes and best practices for their organization, and maximize the effectiveness and efficiency of resource allocation to best meet the needs of their customers and constituents. Organizations of all kinds – multi-billion dollar international firms, governments, healthcare, and even small nonprofits – have embraced this discipline as an effective means to help navigate the
macro trends affecting them.
Critical issues now facing many companies include increased competition, more sophisticated consumers, fewer people available to do more work, and internal mandates to meet measurable goals and optimize available resources. Many organizations have discovered that instituting structured project management practices helps them reduce inefficiencies, gain/retain market share, and, ultimately, succeed.
Susan Vece, Director, Lake Forest Corporate Education, has witnessed the increasing importance of project management in business today. “In the execution of their strategies, companies need projects to be completed within scope, within budget, and on deadline,” observes Vece. “While a project manager may negotiate to increase the budget and/or push back deadlines, changing the scope of the project can directly impact customer satisfaction.
Whether that customer is internal or external, dissatisfaction with products, services, and brands is a high price for any business to pay.”
Continues Vece, “Some organizations – including LFCE clients Ace Hardware and Lawson Products – have established Project Management Offices. All projects are managed through this department to ensure proper prioritization, resourcing, and execution.”
With the proliferation of project management, project managers now come from a variety of functional areas within an organization, and may or may not have formal project management skills or experience. Finding people with proven project management expertise can be challenging, making this type of leadership competency highly desirable. Empowering those individuals who do have this mission-critical competency – and training those who do not – can go a long way toward helping an organization execute its strategic initiatives.
LFCE faculty member John Flood, Director, Program Management, Motorola, Inc., concurs. “Establishing project management as an imperative in the organization will enable enhanced coordination, communication, and collaboration. Project management will be the central focal point for integration and synchronization to achieve business goals and objectives, while simultaneously allowing functional teams to execute their individual core competencies while the project manager integrates all team activities to business objectives and goals. Worldwide organizations will embrace, value, and utilize project management, and will attribute their success to it.”
Can your organization benefit from improved efficiencies of process or resources? If you answered “yes” to this question, join companies like Ace Hardware, Hospira, and Lawson Products who have all benefited from project management training through Lake Forest Corporate Education.
Content for this article was partially derived from the Project Smart Web site, the Project Management Institute [PMI] Web site, and PMI’s PMBOK® [Project Management Body of Knowledge] Guide.
