Focusing on Clear Image of Business Community

Come this spring, if the San Fernando Valley business community is suffering from an identity crisis, it won’t be because no one’s tried to create a picture ID.

Two comprehensive surveys are in the works now to assess everything from the needs of family-owned businesses to the number of manufacturers and the impact of the region’s housing stock on employers’ ability to recruit.

The larger of the two is part of a mammoth undertaking by the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley, the region’s chief civic booster, to take an economic snapshot of nearly 10,000 businesses in the Valley region--the 290-square mile expanse that stretches from Glendale on the east to Calabasas on the west.

A four-page survey in that project went out earlier this month and the results are to be released at the organization’s Valley Summit 2000 conference, set for February.

Also in development is an assessment by the new Family Business Center at Cal State Northridge. That survey, designed to appraise both the nature and the needs of family-run firms in the area, was sent out to more than 7,000 businesses in the San Fernando, Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys, as well as Ventura County and Pasadena.

Issues covered by that survey include management structure, composition of the board of directors and turnover. Results are expected to be released early next year.

Both efforts come on top of the recently released report on the San Fernando Valley economy done by CSUN’s Economic Research Center--the second annual look at everything from the percentage of area jobs in retailing to electricity use by various industries.

The collective cataloging--while not a concerted effort--is designed at least in part to give the amorphous region--and its economic engine--a clearer look at its defining features. And whether it’s a millennium-inspired effort to start the 2000s with fresh data or part of the Valley region’s continuing attempt to self-define, observers both in and outside the area concede that there’s an unusual amount of pulse-taking going on.

“It must be that this is an issue that’s bubbling up. We’re finding our identity,” said Dan McConaughy, director of CSUN’s Family Business Center.

“Maybe this is a sign of the maturity of the area. We’ve got the resources to look at it now. Or maybe it’s so big now that you can’t keep it on a note pad in your back pocket.”

The Alliance poll grew out of talks that began a few years ago as key business leaders strategized about how to improve the economic climate in the Valley, according to Bill Allen, president of the Economic Alliance.

During the course of those discussions, the group realized that it did not have good data to work with, he said.

“None of the cities had done a recent business poll,” he said. “They hadn’t asked things like: Are tax issues a problem? Do you ship things out of Burbank [airport]? How do you do business? And how can we help you do it more successfully?”

Thus, three months ago, the Alliance spent $30,000 to hire a Berkeley-based firm, Applied Development Economics, not only to conduct the survey but also to help the group do some economic planning once the results are known.

Allen sees it as a tool to help local business organizations such as his better serve their customers and also as a way to help inform the debate about what exactly is the San Fernando Valley.

“It’s our desire to have people informed,” said Allen, speaking of the survey and other data-gathering efforts of his organization. “We think there is a lot of debate that goes on without benefit of the data.”

Enter Applied Development Economics. Although the 14-year-old company has done similar polls in the past, Doug Svensson, managing principal, called it the largest survey his firm has ever done and said it was one of the few designed to track business issues across municipal boundaries.

The survey will focus largely on the region’s manufacturing community and larger businesses that “create more jobs and create more income for workers in the region,” Svensson said, adding that few small retailers would be included.

In contrast, many of the respondents to the family business survey will be smaller firms.

Allen, who hopes the two efforts can complement each other, says “I really think we need more than one approach.”

In addition to standard questions about size and expected growth, the Alliance survey seeks to find out business attitudes on such things as whether they are able to recruit the skilled workers they need locally, whether they are considering relocating and what are the advantages and disadvantages of their current location.

The Alliance hopes for a response rate of at least 10%. So far, the response rate to the family business survey has been about 1%, but McConaughy said some responses are still coming in.

All parties involved in the collective roll-taking described the dual surveys as among the best opportunities to date for local business to sound off.

“The overall message is that this is a chance for Valley business to give voice to their issues,” said Allen. “In four simple pages, they can let both business and government [officials] know what their issues are.

“We do take this very seriously.”

Valley@Work runs each Tuesday. Karen Robinson-Jacobs can be reached at Karen.Robinson@latimes.com.