Katy has more than 25 years of manufacturing and printing industry expertise, including nearly a decade and a half with Arroweye. As a long-standing member of our team, we asked Katy to share a bit more about herself in our first “Employee Spotlight” blog.
You joined Arroweye in 2007 as an operations manager. How did you end up joining our team?
I moved to Las Vegas in 1997, and after 10 years in several different roles at a local traditional printing and manufacturing company, I hit a ceiling. My career is important to me, and I wanted more opportunities for advancement.
When a former colleague referred me to Arroweye, I took a chance and went for an interview. During the meeting, I was incredibly impressed with Arroweye’s back-end technology for order processing, dynamic images and other capabilities; Arroweye’s technology infrastructure and coding were years ahead of the industry. I knew the company had huge growth potential — and that my experience could help facilitate it. The prospect of being part of the team was captivating and I couldn’t resist.
Over the past 14 years, you’ve worked across the organization in a number of roles—and risen up the ranks. How has Arroweye enabled you to build your career path?
Arroweye has been an avid supporter of my career goals. We were a very small company when I started, so each of us was empowered to take on multiple roles. It was challenging but enabled me to learn and grow my skillsets in areas that interested me. I appreciate that Arroweye has embraced open communication and welcomed my ideas for strategic improvements and organizational alignments as we grew over the years.
My curiosity to take on new responsibilities has been encouraged and helped me positively impact the top and bottom lines. Each successive role I have taken on has been a new challenge and Arroweye trusts me to make the most of each opportunity.
What’s changed the most in the company the past 14 years since you’ve joined? What has remained constant?
When I began my career at Arroweye, we were producing 1,800 cards a day; now, we produce hundreds of thousands of cards daily. Our creative, solution-oriented mindset, positive work environment, and growth mentality have steadfastly endured.
What do you find most interesting about working in this industry?
Before I understood the financial payment card industry, I thought of payment cards as simply a way to pay something. But I soon realized, there are many more inventive applications. For example, our cards are being used by state and federal programs (e.g., social services, unemployment offices) to disburse aid to people who have been severely impacted by the COVID pandemic — in addition to those on the frontlines. The payments industry has become incredibly creative across different business verticals, and I’m amazed at how much I learn regularly.
On the product development side, what’s been the most interesting evolution at Arroweye? What do you see as the biggest opportunity for clients?
In the last year, we made some integral changes to our manufacturing techniques through capital investment. This has enabled us to offer our clients and partners more physical card products, features and printing finishing options. We’ve also added more sophisticated options such as dynamic image, data and comprehensive pre-lamination personalization capabilities.
The technology that has driven our success in the zero-inventory space is still a key factor in our growth as a company and creates ongoing opportunities for our partners. Clients benefit from our zero-inventory model because they aren’t forced to pay up-front for inventory that sits in a vault waiting to be used.
Because of our substantial improvements to traditional inventory management techniques, our partners only pay for cards after they are ordered and shipped — eliminating costly obsolescence and waste — and can nimbly respond to market fluctuations as they happen.
On the client integration side, what do find most fulfilling about this part of your job?
It might sound cliché, but I truly enjoy working with clients to find creative solutions. I am motived by challenges and am always searching for new ways to bring the best service and products to market. I also enjoy supporting partners and the internal client integration team members as a subject matter expert across applications.
What do you enjoy most about working at Arroweye — both in the job that you do, and the people that you work with?
I am passionate about building and supporting focused, high-achieving teams. But I also enjoy empowering individual team members to achieve their own career goals and am proud when I can enable a team member’s success. Our work and clients are incredibly important, but it is also important to create an environment in which people feel comfortable expressing themselves and contributing with minimal stress.
Change and improvements cannot come from a stifled culture. Our whole team contributes to our success and growth and our collective voices matter. I welcome challenges to the status quo and encourage others to speak up about opportunities for improvement.
What advice would you give to someone starting at Arroweye?
Be open-minded to change, being challenged and communicate loudly and often. In our industry, change is inevitable when you’re striving for innovation, hard work is expected and suggestions for overcoming challenges are instrumental to growth.
What do you think sets Arroweye apart as an employer? As a partner?
As an employer, Arroweye lives up to its mission of actively promoting inclusivity, openness, and support for our employees at work and in their personal lives. Our company also offers stability for our team members since the work we do is essential to the economy (even during the pandemic).
We are truly in it for the long haul with our clients and partners, and their success is our success. This adage motivates us to bring passion and commitment to everything we do. We view relationships as core to our growth, and advocate unapologetically for our clients internally and externally. It’s a simple formula that has served us very well.
What are you most proud of professionally? Personally?
Professionally, I take pride in my continuous improvement and accomplishments over the last 30 years. During my career, I have driven results that have generated cost savings, profits, growth scaling and bottom-line efficiencies. From a personal standpoint, I am most proud of my 21-year marriage to my wife and our two very driven, emotionally and socially intelligent boys.
