In 1995 they had 17,058 members; in 2005 they added 57,924 new members for a grand total of 207,428 members worldwide. (These outrageous, unbelievable numbers were verified directly with PMI HO).
How is this possible? For a clue as to what they’re doing, pick up any newspaper and take a browse through the employment section. Keep an eye out for this three letter acronym “PMP”, it stands for “Project Management Professional”. My guess is that regardless of where you live, you’re going to be surprised at how many times you run across the phrase “PMP Required”.
PMP is PMI’s certificate of competence. It is the new bona fide of the modern project manager and without it; the unemployed are destined to remain unemployed. PMP is engine driving their unparalleled growth over the past decade and which will ensure their success in the coming years.
True, they’ve cheated (only kidding) in a way. They’ve formed an Assn with no restrictive boundaries. Every organization runs projects; therefore every organization has a need for qualified Project Managers. Not every organization has Doctors, or plumbers, or lawn care specialists etc. etc. PMI is an organization with potential members in every organization on this planet. And when we get to the Moon, there will definitely be a Lunar Chapter.
Certification by itself isn’t enough. There are far too many Assns with some sort of certification programme. What many of them lack is credibility, mainly because their focus is too local. For example, the basis for the PMP certification is a weighty tome entitled the “Project Management Book of Knowledge”, fondly known to PMI members as PMBOK. It is available in about a dozen languages including French, Arabic, Japanese and Spanish.
One of the primary goals behind the PMBOK is to create a worldwide commonality of terminology, so that Project Managers from difference countries and cultures can speak the same language when discussing their profession.
Another factor behind PMI’s success is a persistence borne out of a passion for their subject. They did not gain critical mass overnight. It took a long time to achieve the credibility necessary for them to have a lock on the employment market. Nor, based upon the dozens of discussions I’ve had with PMI executives over the past year, was “World Domination” ever their objective. They just kept plugging away at making PM a recognized profession until they woke up one morning with some many new members that they computer systems began to crumble under their success.
I’d be lying if I said that PMI doesn’t have membership drives. Their chapters are a bit obsessed with the magical 1000’th member, they see that milestone as a reward for all their volunteer efforts, but they are even more obsessed with offering value to their members at each and every PMI event.
As someone who has the opportunity to meet with far more than my fair share of Assns, I admit to having become a fan of PMI. It’s refreshing to experience an Assn that’s so focused on providing solid value to their membership that they’re taken aback by the resulting, and natural, success.
© 2005 Peter de Jager - Peter is a Keynote Speaker and senior consultant with Plexus Consulting Group specializing in Change Management. He can be contacted at pdejager@plexusconsulting.com or at either www.plexusconsulting.com or www.technobility.com |
Reprinted by Permission
