By 2025, emerging economies will contribute to over half the global GDP. Over 15.7 million new project management (PM) roles will be needed to be created globally just to keep up with demand. Alan Garvey says the need for PM training will skyrocket as a result.
According to a recent International Monetary Fund (IMF) report, emerging economies, set to grow by 5.5% this year alone, are predicted to contribute to over half the global GDP by 2025. Places such as Shanghai, Mexico City and New Delhi are the places to keep a particular eye on.
Crucial to the success of innovation and new programmes will be the way in which such programmes are managed. It is predicted that the role of project managers in particular will take on a central role in the success, or failure, of such endeavours. According to the Project Management Institute (PMI), over 15.7 million new project management roles will be needed to be created globally just to keep up with demand in the next decade alone. With new jobs comes a renewed need for training. But which project management skills and competencies will be the most important?
Aside from the technical aspects of project management such as learning cost control and planning, soft skills are increasingly in demand due to globalisation and cross-cultural business interactions. They include: business acumen, critical thinking, coaching and mentoring, business and financial management, change management, and perhaps most importantly, communication. However, many organisations are ill-prepared to handle the call for project management training, much less the soft skills needed to manage projects, large and small.
"The message is clear: organisations that emphasise project management skills are 14 times more likely to achieve project success."
Research by the PMI suggests just 62% of projects met their original business goals in 2012, falling from 72% in 2008. Often this is down to a lack of investment in developing project management processes and individual skills. Organisations which have a process to develop project professionals report a 69% success rate, compared with 57% of organisations that do not. Furthermore, the PMI claims that while 70% of projects that use formalised project management practices have positive outcomes, just 47% show success where these best practices are lacking. The message is clear: organisations that emphasise project management skills are 14 times more likely to achieve project success.
The trend toward soft skills training is on a downslide worldwide. According to ESI’s latest annual benchmarking survey, The Global State of the PMO: An Analysis for 2013, only 30% of organisations have provided or intend to offer soft skills training to project management professionals in 2013, down from 41% in 2012. Yet it has been proven that organisations, especially PMOs, which engage in sustained training efforts for their project management professionals as well as learning impact measurement are able to deliver their projects on-time and to-budget over 75% of the time.
As emerging economies make their mark in the business world, training will be critical to the success or failure of new markets. Project management and the soft skills required to execute best practices properly will be more important than ever. Forward-thinking organisations will recognise the need for such training early on and put the necessary resources behind these programmes to ensure they are positioned to meet the demands before them.
Alan Garvey is managing director, EMEA and Asia, of ESI International, and leads a regional team of professionals who are responsible for all aspects of ESI learning programme development and delivery
