“I think Sal’s greatest quality is that he treats everyone with respect,” says D.S. Berenson, a construction attorney who has represented Alure for many years. “He always makes you feel as if he’s listening to your opinion and weighing it conscientiously and seriously. That engenders a loyalty and goodwill that is very, very rare” among highly successful businesspeople.
“Sal treats people extremely fairly, and he’s definitely an optimist,” says Lisa DiFilippi, an Alure vice president who came on board as a bookkeeper 13 years ago. “He sees the best in people and builds on it,” not only finding ways to promote employees far beyond their initial positions but helping them identify and execute solutions to challenges. When referral rates drooped, for instance, it was his and Hyman’s idea to launch “PartnerPoints,” an enormously successful referral program that rewards clients and staff alike for bringing in business.
The program’s ultimate reward is an all-expenses-paid Caribbean vacation with Ferro and other Alure staff and trade partners. In four years, 57 couples and 30 Alure employees have been treated to this sun-drenched celebration of the tropics — and, more subtly, of the Alure culture. (See video testimonials on www.alure.com.)
Even when the news is difficult, Ferro has an almost mystical ability to deliver it in a positive way. “Sal never kicks somebody when they’re down,” says Mike Camastro, a 29-year Alure employee who now manages the 200 or so trade partners that do the bulk of the company’s production work. “He’s got a unique way of giving you the bad but making you feel inspired to go out and do better.”
Hyman, whose father, Sol, founded Alure in the 1940s, says Ferro is “a strong, inspirational leader, especially in tough times.” After the attacks of September 11, Ferro gathered the team in his office, where he managed to both respectfully share the gravity of the situation and rally the Alure team to support one another and emerge stronger.
“His team will run through a brick wall,” Hyman says.
“One thing Sal says is, ‘When you need me the most, you’ll have me the most,'” says Mike Kuplicki, manager of Alure’s basement sales department. “He doesn’t just dump problems on your head.” Nor does he avoid confronting them. A few years ago, Ferro invited Kuplicki to join him on a drive. After a while, “he turned to me and said, ‘Mike, how do you think the ladies in administration feel about you?’ I figured they loved me,” Kuplicki responded.
They didn’t, he learned. “Sal said, ‘Would you be surprised if they think you are a little tough to work for?'” He then itemized a few examples. Kuplicki was briefly stunned, then defensive, “and then I got into my recovery mode because Sal is great at getting to that. He gave me a huge tune-up in the car, and he helped me see that my job is to motivate and inspire people, not to dominate them.”
Leading With His Chin
One of the better-documented accounts of Ferro’s motivational skills took place in New Orleans in March. Ferro had flown in 22 staff members and trade partners, including basement installer Robert Viola, to participate in the rebuild of a storm-battered church and home for the Extreme Makeover season finale. The project kickoff was held in a packed church, and the owners of the 12 key companies involved in the makeover had been asked to say a few words.
Ferro would speak last, and Viola worried that his friend would wilt under the pressure of the crowd and the TV lights and cameras. “By the time the mike reached Sal, I was sweating for this guy,” he remembers. “What could he say that hadn’t already been said? I wanted to hug him.”
Viola’s fears vanished the minute Ferro began speaking. “I couldn’t believe what Sal pulled out of his hat,” he says. “He gave the most beautiful speech. People were in tears. By the end, he had the entire place giving him a standing ovation.” That’s par for the course, say others who have observed Ferro at high-powered charity and networking events. “Some people are ubiquitous at these events,” says Jed Morey, who runs a marketing and media company on Long Island. “The difference with Sal is that he is the room when he enters it.”
But although Ferro is an inordinately good schmoozer, he is selective about the causes he supports, which run the gamut from local hunger-relief organizations to a green communities initiative to the Boy Scouts. And when Ferro is passionate about something, his room-filling warmth is both genuine and charismatic, which contributes beautifully to Alure Home Improvements’
overall success. “Their marketing works because Sal is the figurehead,” Morey says. “He believes in his products and leads with his chin, and if you see the TV commercials” — on which Ferro himself appears, as he does in nearly all Alure marketing — “you know he is for real. Everybody’s got a contractor nightmare story. You want to work with this guy.”
But don’t mistake Ferro’s nice-guy demeanor for softness, says David Yoho Jr., a speaker and consultant with many construction clients. “This man has gone out of his way to build relationships to the degree that few people can find fault with his business behavior,” he says. “What’s interesting is that although Sal likes people and is a hugger, the man sets standards, and you’re going to meet them. He has an intensity and a competitiveness. There isn’t a second in this man’s day that isn’t about winning.”
Making It Happen
To understand Ferro’s intensity, consider a few defining moments in his rise to the position of corporate CEO. Salvatore Ferro was born in the Bronx in 1963, the fifth of eight kids of a taxi and limo driver and a housewife, both of whose parents had emigrated from Italy. In 1971, the family moved to Long Island, drawn by its schools and suburban promise, with Sal senior working two jobs to support the move.
When Ferro was 10, his oldest brother was killed in a car accident. Eight years later, his father died the same way. Ferro left college after just one semester to help his mother and siblings, working construction for his two brothers-in-law.
His father’s loss both matured Ferro and gave him direction. While holding two jobs, he returned to school and completed his studies at SUNY Farmingdale. To this day, he attributes his accomplishments there — honor role, business club president, homecoming king — to convincing himself that he “could achieve anything,” he says.
Another defining moment came when Ferro was 25. Newly married, and fresh off a miserably brief career as a stockbroker, he was again juggling two jobs (one for his brothers-in-law) and considering starting his own construction business. On a lark, he called Alure Home Improvements first.
Then largely a painting and wallpaper company, with revenue in the $3 million range, Alure was just getting into the home improvement sector. The position advertised was junior production manager, and the first person to screen his call was Freda Krackow. “He was so cute,” recalls Krackow, who still works part-time, at 71, surveying clients about their experience with Alure. (She loves her job, she adds, because the average rating is 9.37 out of 10.) “I asked why he didn’t want to stay with his family business, and he said, ‘They don’t take me seriously.'”
Hyman did take Ferro seriously, and the young hire quickly proved invaluable. In the recession of the early ’90s, for instance, which unfortunately coincided with the construction of Alure’s showroom, “Sal worked his tail off,” Hyman says. “Most of the staff didn’t get that we were losing money. Sal got it, and he rolled up his sleeves to make things happen.”