SHERMAN OAKS : Business Group Gets Pep Talk on Recovery

Innovative thinking and self-responsibility are the key to rebuilding Sherman Oaks, a motivational speaker told a business group Thursday during a Greater Sherman Oaks Chamber of Commerce luncheon.

Don Shapiro, a Beverly Hills-based management consultant, tossed out ideas including re-creating Sherman Oaks through rezoning, making the town a mecca for small professional businesses and creating public-private revitalization programs.

The speaker also offered more traditional ideas such as tapping little-known federal funding programs and trying to bring new growth industries into town.

“We have become accustomed to asking, ‘When are they going to help us out?’ ‘They’ meaning the government, other chamber members or our customers,” Shapiro said. “We have gotten to the point where ‘they’ have become us. There is no cavalry that comes in and saves us. You get on those horses and lasso in the opportunities.”

Shapiro, who is widely known as a motivational speaker, said that he does not mean for business leaders to take his ideas as prescriptions, but rather as potential solutions to consider.

The consultant held out as an example Community Build, a private recovery effort created by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) to bring economic and human development projects into South Central Los Angeles after the 1992 riots.

“Waters said that she would like (President) Clinton to write a $15-billion check to help the community, but she knew he is never going to write that check,” Shapiro said. “Instead, she created new concepts.”

Shapiro tailored his speech for his audience at Sportsmen’s Lodge in Studio City--something that he said he tries to do with all of his speeches.

For example, he suggested inviting government agencies to locate their offices in Sherman Oaks as a means of revitalization. But in a nod to the area’s recent successful efforts to get a parole office relocated out of Sherman Oaks, he said that the community had to decide which uses were appropriate.

The motivational speaker said he waived his usual fee--$2,500 to $10,000--to contribute to the renewal of the hard-hit community.

Shapiro’s comments appeared to be well-received.

“It’s important to talk to people about self-responsibility--that’s lacking in most people I know,” said Stephen W. Smith, an office-equipment salesman for the Minolta Corp. “For me, it reinforces the need to go after the things you want, rather than waiting for it to come to you. You can’t hear that enough.”