case study: a focus on competency development and training double the success rate of new initiatives a project management training program improved milestone achievement ten times in just a short period of 25 months. it was observed that raising the competency level of a project manager made it twice as likely that an initiative would be successfully completed. company KEL an ontario, california usa based consumer electronics manufacturing company, has its operations in more than 18 countries woeldwide, and its customer base includes billions of consumers around the globe. Challenge project manager at KEL exist in various functions of the company such as R&D , manufacturing, business process reengineering, and marketing. a vast majority of them do possess strong technical skills but not business skills. due to increased focus on nontraditional business practices (eg: knowledge management and sustainability) in the modern era, there is an additional need for stronger leadership and communication skills. also, the standerdizational of the business and technology process has become absolutely necessary now to be more successful in launching initiative and improving the percentage of project and programs meeting milestone targets. Solution KEL leadership realized the new training initiative can be brought up to speed faster by bringing in an outside project management partner. PM Door consulting (PMDC) was called upon to take on this training initiative quickly and to incorporate KEL's internal materials, creating a training program tialored to the KEL environment. The training program consisted of two main courses: - initiative Focused Leadership Training (IFLT) was targeted toward newly promoted or potential project managers. This program was intended to increase the knowledge and skills of the target audience in the innovation techniques that would enable them to be more productive and effective in leading initiatives pertaining to innovation. -Project Management Fundamnetals Training (PMFT) builds on and complements the leadership skills of IFLT by providing project managers access to the tools and techniques to plan, perform, manage, and control initiatives. In addition, PMDC offered few more cources including but not limited to Lean Six Sigma Green Belt training, project risk management, technical leadership, and C level communications. Result over the 18 months, more than 1,200 KEL project managers,functional managers, and other employees across all its sites around the globe have taken various courses offered by PMDC. Approximately 300 of them have obtained their Project Management Professional (PMP) credentials and approximately 150 of them have earned their Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certification. KEI leadership has observed that since that time, the percentage of milestones achieved on schedule has increased by ten times, which is a significant improvement. these results provide a solid proof of concept and a poweful argument for continuing to raise the competency level of project managers who lead the high visibility and high dollar initiatives for KEI.

What are the lessons learned from this case?