T H E C O M M U N I T Y O F B U S I N E S S TMVolume 21, Number 19 September 19 - October 2, 2016 • $4.00

SAN FERNANDO VALLEY BUSINESS JOURNALsfvbj.com

LOS ANGELES • GLENDALE • SANTA CLARITA • BURBANK • CONEJO VALLEY • SIMI VALLEY • SAN FERNANDO • CALABASAS • AGOURA HILLS • ANTELOPE VALLEY

When the CW television network launched 10 years ago, Hulu and Amazon Prime didn’t exist. Facebook Inc. was in startup survival mode. But surprisingly, the growth of social media and digi-tal entertainment have helped the fifth broadcast network, which has catered to a growing appetite for superhero shows.

The network, co-owned by Warner Bros. Entertainment in Burbank, borrows heavily from DC Comics, another unit of Warner Bros. Both the programming and technology have broadened the audience of the CW and estab-lished its brand in the TV marketplace.

SuperheroesSave NetworkENTERTAINMENT: Burbank’s CW finds comic book success.

Please see ENTERTAINMENT page 6

By HELEN FLOERSH Staff Reporter

What do you do when one of your hot-test-selling products becomes contraband?

It’s a question facing smoke shop owners across the Valley area since the Drug Enforcement Administration decided to place a temporary ban on a dietary supplement called kratom. On Aug. 31, the agency released a notice of intent to classi-fy kratom as a Schedule I substance – the same as heroin and marijuana – beginning Sept. 30, calling it an “imminent danger to public health.”

The decision has left store owners such as

Regulators KillA Hit Painkiller

M A I L T O :

Foundations, colleges and MBA programs.PAGE 11

The Lists

Alan Au brings fashion to the shorter man.PAGE 40

Valley Style

RETAIL: Smoke shops huffing as stimulant kratom illegalized.

Up Front

Pamela Donnelly offers advice for investor pitches.PAGE 3

Please see RETAIL page 36

David Ackert migrated to Los Angeles to be an actor. While he enjoyed success playing villains on TV shows, he ended up becoming a business coach and now helps attorneys and other professionals market themselves.

What’s the best and easiest way a business owner can communicate value? Differentiate yourself, said Ackert of Ackert Inc. in Sherman Oaks. If you describe your expertise with the same kind of lan-guage you see on your competitor’s website, “you haven’t done a very good job of differentiating your-self,” he said.

Beyond that, acting skills help, he said. Try to put together a compelling message “and deliver it in such a way that it has impact.”

Making His Mark With Marketing

On Stage: Ackert discusses his coaching style.PHOTO BY DAVID SPRAGUE

PROFILE: Actor turned consultantexplains the art of the sales call.

Please see PROFILE page 9

Software morphs work routine with ‘gamification’

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BY

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In Play: Bobby Hakimi, left,

and brother Nima at Convoso.

GAME CHANGEBy CAROL LAWRENCE Staff Reporter

After nearly 10 years selling software that automated telemarketing calls, brothers Bobby and Nima Hakimi decided to change their game.

The pair overhauled their Woodland Hills company starting a year ago. They rewrote their software product to work for customer service agents taking inbound calls, changed the compa-ny name to Convoso from SafeSoft Solutions to reflect a new focus on conversations and shifted away from servicing just telemarketers who made outbound calls.

Finally, they added an important element to their new training and performance tracking soft-ware: gamification.

As the Hakimi brothers describe it, gamifica-tion incorporates game-like elements –contests, challenges, points, badges and a bit of gambling for recognition and rewards – into the work routine.

For example, one employee could challenge her workmates one week to see who could take the most calls or resolve the most issues or have

Please see TECHNOLOGY page 37

HIGH-TOUCH FINANCE: Private bankers find the Valley region a prime market of entrepreneurs, second-generation wealth and nonprofits. Also, customers find post-merger changes inside the doors of Commercial Bank of California, above.

BEGINNING ON PAGE 18

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The worst stretch of commuter freeway in the nation is the 101 Freeway from Woodland Hills to downtown Los Ange-les, according to a study released in July by the Auto Insurance Center.

The Florida-based news and research orga-nization estimates that the 26-mile trip starting at the Topanga Canyon Boule-vard on-ramp and ending at Vignes Street takes 91 minutes at peak rush hour. The average speed is just 17 miles an hour.

The second-worst com-mute? It’s essentially the same trip in the opposite direction. From Soto Street downtown to Haskell Street in Encino takes 70 minutes moving at 19 miles an hour.

The center calculated those travel times from data sensors that record traffic speed every 15 minutes. The study found the worst time to head downtown is Wednesday at 8 a.m.; the second-worst home-bound drive to the Valley is Wednesday at 6 p.m. Presumably, a commuter – or a busi-nessperson who makes an occasional trip downtown – could lessen the distress

by avoiding those peak times.

“The average American commuter loses 42 hours a year to snarled traffic. That means a full workweek every year – 10 months

total during an average career – is spent driving to and from work,” the study stated.

By comparison, the average L.A. commuter loses 80 hours a year, or two full weeks, the study found.

Titled “Jammed: The Cost of Traffic Conges-tion,” the study also looked at the financial impact of congestion. The average commuter in Los Angeles loses $1,711 every year because of lost time in traffic. The average driver nationally loses $960.

“Long commutes are frustrating – and depend-ing on where you live and how long you drive, they can also be awfully hard on your wallet,” the study authors wrote.

– Joel Russell

The Number

91Minutes to drive downtown

from Topanga Boulevard

Valley Economic Alli-ance is looking toward the future, preparing college and high school students for the workforce through its sec-ond Valley Hackathon.

The Sherman Oaks-based business development group will host the event Sept. 23 at California State Uni-versity, Northridge, where students will apply what they’ve learned in the class-room to solve a real-world challenge.

“When businesses hire recent graduates, they notice three skills that are lacking — communication, ethics and teamwork,” said Angela Amirkhanian, economic development senior coordi-nator for the alliance. “At the Valley Hackathon, students are communicating with their teammates, whom they don’t know, in an ethical way to solve a problem.”

About 100 students with an interest in either technol-ogy or political science are expected to participate this year, which is twice the size of last year’s competition. Amirkhanian said one of the biggest challenges in regard to the event was getting stu-

dents to sign up. However, the success of last year’s hackathon spurred teachers to encourage their pupils to participate.

The students will be divid-ed into teams and presented with a problem at the begin-ning of the hackathon. The groups will have several hours to come up with a website or mobile app as a solution. They will present the results to a panel of judges that will include Jeanne Holm, tech-nology advisory in the L.A. mayor’s office; Councilman Mitch Englander; Southern California Gas Co.’s Net-work Engineering Manager

Adam Velardo and others.“Hackathons offer stu-

dents an action-packed, fast-paced context to apply text-book theories to real-world applications,” said Phillip Kim, associate professor of entrepreneurship at Bab-son College in Wellesley, Mass. “With a clock ticking and potential prize money awaiting, the competition atmosphere can stoke people to go beyond simply think-ing about ideas but actually doing something practical about them.”

Sponsored by compa-nies like headphone man-ufacturer V-Moda of West

Hollywood, prizes won’t be revealed until winners are announced at the end of the competition. The Valley Economic Alliance also added a networking portion to the program, when stu-dents will be able to meet with different companies and organizations with internship and hiring opportunities in the technology field.

“I believe for K-12, we (taxpayers) are spending $120,000 per student, but we aren’t doing a very good job keeping them local,” said Amirkhanian. “If we help students find local mentors, colleges and jobs, that bene-fits the economy.”

Schools participating in this year’s event include Burbank High School, Granada Hills Charter High School and California State University, Northridge.

– Stephanie Henkel

Event designed to put practical technology in Valley economy.

Hackathon Highlights Innovators

Competitors: Above, last year’s hackathon teams; left, hackers share ideas.

4 SAN FERNANDO VALLEY BUSINESS JOURNAL UP FRONT SEPTEMBER 19, 2016