Project management skills are not just for traditional project managers anymore. For instance, Donald Trump assesses the project management abilities of the contestants on his TV show, “The Apprentice.” Their success or failure directly relates to their performance on successful teams. The same holds true in the real business world. That is why today’s business professionals need to bring project management skills to the workplace and your firm needs to put those skills to work.

Long thought of as a specialized career field, project management is emerging as an essential skill set in all business disciplines, as managers and employees seek to differentiate themselves and contribute to long-term company success. Our business graduates at Iowa State University are increasingly finding themselves assigned to cross-disciplinary teams, managing a myriad of projects to increase customer value, enhance internal efficiencies or deliver new or improved products and services to the global market. Because projects often are unique and complex, employees must become creative, organized people who think outside traditional organizational limitations. Leadership, problem solving, risk management, teamwork, negotiation, resource allocation, scheduling, budgeting and the development of work breakdown schedules are just some of the skills needed to manage increasingly complex projects.

Accelerated career paths exist for those who have and understand project management skills and methodologies but do not wish to be project managers themselves. Employees with backgrounds in management, engineering, information systems, finance, marketing, operations research, transportation and even the liberal arts have gone on to successful careers bolstered with a competitive advantage after completing project management courses.

I frequently hear from Iowa State alumni on this very subject. One of them, Mike Foley of Accendo Strategic Consulting, recommends project management training because it gives employees the opportunity to display a broader array of business skills sooner in their careers. Ultimately, he says, it accelerates their careers by exposing them to cross-disciplinary knowledge and skills. Management notices those who produce results and can operate in an intense environment that demands prioritization and adjudication among competing projects.

Employees trained in project management focus on metric-driven success factors and the adding of efficiencies in bundling corporate resources. Employees learn to establish clear objectives, plan for contingencies, define risk and operate within a framework that demands control of costs, establishment of standards, and delivery of the project. The right software experience allows future employees to manage financial and human resources within simulated project scenarios as if they were actual project managers.

Project management is becoming more mainstream as firms link strategic change initiatives to project development. Foley, for example, sees project management as a useful method to help measure the economic value of the information technology function within a corporation, particularly as those functions are consolidated or outsourced. Employees examine relevant business plans and change strategies to determine the best grouping of projects by evaluating planned benefits and economies of scale using project management methodologies. They learn to establish a benefits management process leading to improved levels of support to senior management, thereby improving communication and decision-making channels to major project initiatives.

Employees with “Apprentice”-type skills provide enhanced resource administration and project prioritization for the firms that hire them. They also are able to better manage risk across interrelated projects, and deliver business benefits through a formal program of management and measurement.

Though not everyone can win on the “The Apprentice,” having project management training greatly enhances employee opportunities for successful career advancement as well as increasing the competitive performance of their firms.

Gary Hackbarth is an assistant professor of Management Information Systems at the Iowa State University College of Business.