Prof. Chris Jooste

Since their inception nearly three decades ago, charter schools have played a critical role in the reform of our nation’s public education system. As the charter movement has progressed, many single-site schools have evolved into charter management organizations (CMOs) responsible for operating networks of several campuses with the hope of increasing the number of quality seats available to students and families. Growing to scale is often challenging for single-site schools and small CMOs. In order to execute expansion successfully, this study sought to answer the overarching question, “How does a charter school or small CMO know that it is ready to grow?” The study’s findings demonstrated that, in order to evaluate readiness for scale, charter/CMO leaders must consider several key internal and external factors. The internal factors are: (a) “The Why” (primary reason or motivation for scaling), (b) Organizational Identity, (c) Human Capital, (d) Governance, (e) Fiscal Health, (f) Infrastructure, and (g) Growth Mindset and Strategy. The external factors are: (a) Need and Demand; (b) Funding; (c) Facilities; (d) Political Context, Policy, and Climate; (e) Parent and Community Relations; and (f) Collaboration and Competition Inside and Outside the Sector. The research and findings from this study also informed the development of a workbook for charter/CMO leaders seeking to evaluate their organization’s proficiency in internal factors and optimality of external factors in order to determine their readiness to scale.

Local medium enterprises used to make economic miracles for Taiwan. However,in the wake of the changes in the macro environment, the rapid development of technology, changes in people¡¦s needs, increasing awareness of job safety and environmental protection, changes in the structure of workplace, capital and human resources moving to China as a result of rising mainland China, and recent rising prices of materials, local medium enterprises have been badly shattered, and their survival space has been squeezed. Rubber processing industries are in especially dire situations because they are labor-intensive and operate in inferior working conditions.So this research was designed to investigate how medium and small rubber processing industries, operating under such hostile business environment, can make good use of resources, overcome unfavorable environmental factors so as to energize business and continue business growth. Through literature investigation, this study used Advantages in Business Competition authored by professor Fang Chih-Min as the main research framework. At the same time, in combination with the review of other literature, through a process of affective learning, this study summarized, compiled and put forth a contention that a business must have advantages lying in ¡§ability to use resources effectively,¡¨¡§ability to achieve internal growth,¡¨ and ¡§ability to achieve external growth¡¨ before it can grow. The study inferred a topic from this contention. Then research was conducted based on case study approach. It was expected to understand, from this topic, what conditions would happen to the case and how to solve them. The results would be contrasted with theory, hoping to investigate and find out what would play a critical role in affecting the growth of a business. Then through practical verification,this study summarized, compiled, and proposed conclusions and suggestions. Through the research of this study, it was initially found that the essence of management would not change because of the size of a business and that how to conduct optimal use of limited resources to construct competition edge which is not related to size plays a vital role of the growth of small businesses. Moreover, in addition to strengthening their mainstream business, small businesses must also plan to enter businesses that can grow and profit tremendously so as to speed up their growth. As to suggestions offered to the case companies, in addition to enhancing their internal operation and management, they should also make good use of external resources to optimize the performance of resources, which would be the key to their growth.