HISTORY

Ference Leadership and Strategy designs and conducts programs that assess an organization’s success, its future aspirations, and the skill sets necessary for effective leadership. Since 1980, our organizational diagnostics and team processes have enabled our clients to establish performance ratings at the peak of excellence scores and accordingly receive such awards as: The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, Employer of Choice, Best Human Resources, Employer of the Year, and Fortune's Best 100 Companies to Work For. Such accolades document how our clients have achieved operational peak performance in product, service, and guest/customer experience resulting from significant improvements in employee satisfaction, team engagement, customer loyalty, and financial results.

Ference Leadership and Strategy works with organizational leaders regarding employee feedback, quality service delivery, brand development initiatives, and overall customer success. Customized services include designing and administering organizational surveys and assessments, integrating performance data into training and development programs, enhancing brand awareness, creating and monitoring service standards and building peak-performance service cultures.

Ference Leadership and Strategy focuses on the big picture of an organization’s aspirations. FLS has two support divisions: Peak Performance Mindset providing programs in organizational dynamics and service practices, and Center For Survey Research providing customized employee feedback surveys and metrics for brand engagement and position the business. Since 1980, we have conducted programs in: Hospitality, Gaming, Foodservice, Retail, Leisure, Entertainment, and related industries.

An extensive performance database that exceeds 1,000,000 surveys enable Ference Leadership and Strategy & Center For Survey Research, to uniquely correlate and benchmark each client's performance to a full array of competitive target points featuring both Industry and Company-Comparative performance norms. Reporting capabilities enable client executives to view their organization holistically and to data-mine for specific performance insights.

GENE FERENCE, Ph.D. is a service-industry insider. His degrees in management and organizational development from Cornell University are backed by over 30 years of service industry experience. In addition, he is certified in Change Management Leadership from The NTL Institute for Applied Behavioral Sciences. Gene blends operational experience with best practices and peak-performance mindsets. As an accomplished speaker, organizational strategist, and group facilitator, Gene conducts leadership retreats, management workshops and conference meetings. As an executive coach, he develops management talent through one-on-one and small group programs focusing on refining interpersonal skills, leadership style, and team dynamics in order to optimize executive peak performance and organizational impact. Programs focus on interpersonal communications, team dynamics, organizational alignment, customer engagement, and the peak-performance mindset.

Staff include industry professionals who have worked with Ference Leadership and Strategy & Center for Survey Research for an average of over 15 years. With BS and MS degrees from Cornell, Rutgers, American, and Bridgeport Universities, on-site staff coordinate and personally answer program questions and inquiries. Our team focuses on tailoring programs for each client's needs in order to exceed each client's expectations.

OUR MISSION

To provide strategic information for organizations

seeking to achieve peak-performing service cultures.

TESTIMONIALS

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company

Thank you for assistance in our strategic-growth over the past 10 years. Your programs have helped us strengthen our executive and team member awareness of our Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company Brand and its quality systems, process improvement initiatives, and team performance expectations.

Inter-Continental Hotel Group

Thank you for your insightful survey reports which have enabled us globally over the past six years to raise the performance bar for working environments and the guest experience. Your programs and services have assisted us greatly in adding value to the IHC Brand.

Claridge's London

Thank you for an easy-to-apply way to develop the right leadership and strategy tools for our business plan. Since then we have gone on to win the 2002 Best Human Resources Practices Award. This would not have been possible without your organizational survey programs, management retreats, and operational insights you provide.

MGM Grand Las Vegas

Thank you for helping us define our customer feedback measurement tools for MGM Grand Las Vegas and The City of Entertainment in the midst of an evolving brand strategy. We now have a clearer vision of our strategy for the coming year.

Harrah's Entertainment Las Vegas

Thank you for helping us to develop our mission statement, core values, and company-wide hotel operating standards. Your workshops and seminars have provided us with a holistic view of our organizational team and service world. You bring to the table powerful concepts, applied skills, and operational points of view that can be embraced by everyone and used tomorrow.

Barona Valley Ranch Resort and Casino

Thank you for contributing to the growth and development of our business culture, and continued development of the leadership team. We have always been proud of the positive environment you have helped us cultivate at Barona Valley Ranch. You have helped us gain nationwide recognition as one of the premier Indian gaming organizations.

Benchmark Hospitality International

Thank you for helping to give birth to our Benchmark Hospitality's focus! You read our very diverse and opinionated group exceptionally well. You kept us focused on our company vision and forced us to confront challenges and develop an action plan for the future.

Rockresorts

Thank you for bringing together our executives to engage in mission strategies through dialogue, spirit and the potential inherent in the team and company. Your ability to combine the art of team dynamics, the process of business strategy, and the science of management has helped us align our human resources with vision and mission in order to enhance guest experience and build brand awareness.