TigerPress roars through pandemic

Following graduation from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1985, my wife and business partner, who I met at UMass, and I decided to open a small copy center in Amherst.

What was then known as Copy Cat is now TigerPress.

The

Cat turned into a Tiger!

Today, TigerPress, based in East Longmeadow, is one of the largest print manufacturers in the region and a leader in green printing technology.

In 2020, as the pandemic slowed our years of steady and measured growth, we made a decision to focus on the safety of our staff, their families and the community at large. We pivoted parts of our operations to the manufacturing of protective masks for health-care workers and first responders and donated the masks throughout the region, stretching as far as Boston and Cape Cod. In those early months of 2020, the safety of our staff, our neighbors and our community became our top priority.

Haghighat

CONTINUES FROM PAGE J8 founders, Dianne Fuller Doherty, the late Sally Livingston, and Martha Richards, had a bold idea to raise money and invest specifically to affect change for women and girls. We have achieved a lot over the last 25 years. The pay gap is narrowing and we see more women leaders than ever before.

In some areas, progress has been stubbornly unattainable, such as advancing women of color. In other areas, advances that we have made have been overturned, as with reproductive justice on the federal level. There is far more work to be done. There is also effort needed to ensure that our organization not only survives but prospers in the future.

Having the flexibility of a small business with committed and creative employees allowed us to make quick and meaningful decisions to deal with the unexpected challenges presented by the pandemic. We recognized that an appropriately sized, competent and flexible workforce is critical for our success moving forward. To that end, we have accelerated our engagement with the Program Advisory Committee of the graphic communications program at Roger L. Putnam Vocational Technical Academy in Springfield. The goal was to ensure that program graduates have the technical competencies and critical employability readiness skills that align with our workforce needs going forward.

Organizational survival is doing what needs doing right now while not having the time and focus to think of what can be done to ensure the organization will thrive over time.

Last year, we set a bold

As we begin to heal from the economic scars caused by the pandemic and look downfield over the next five years, the prevailing economic and business conditions in the printing industry will require us to see change as a positive driver for sustainability, encourage us to maintain ongoing dialogue with our employees, who are our most important asset, and continue to offer our customers cost-effective and timely business solutions.

Additionally, our work during the pandemic has convinced us that we are poised and ready to take a leadership role in our industry. Our ability to make quick decisions and adapt to changes in the economy and in our marketplace is what makes the difference and allows us to continue to thrive. goal to double the number of friends who join our Joan’s Circle of Friends planned giving circle. We are proud to say we met that goal. In seven months, 25 women (there are men in the circle as well) came forward to say they would make the women’s fund a beneficiary of a retirement asset, add the women’s fund to their will, or make a gift of $10,000 or more to our endowment. Being intentional about this campaign and these bold individual moves will allow the women’s fund to thrive, not just survive into the future.

Creating a compelling and unselfish corporate vision and being flexible to make the necessary changes in a timely manner is the best strategy for success should the winds of an economic recession begin to blow in our direction.

When we flourish, we can build the capacity of gender equity organizations in the region and thereby move women, girls, and gender expansive folks forward. We can accomplish more like

Our business outlook is bright and laser-focused on the opportunities to be innovative and responsive to change. We see that in every situation there is an opportunity to adapt and change.

After 37 years, the Tiger continues to roar with opti- our monthly meetings of the Women Heads of Nonprofits and our quarterly gatherings of domestic violence and sexual assault providers in the community. Our work optimizing reentry for women returning from incarceration can continue and we can expand our budding advocacy work.

We can show up better and acknowledge the power we mism and hope.

Reza Shafii is president of Tiger Press in East Longmeadow. He wrote this column on behalf of the MassHire Hampden County Workforce Board. To learn more about the board and its efforts, go online to masshirehcwb.com hold and the resources we bring. Our strength and our assets will dismantle systems of oppression. We will collectively build a world where all people can have agency over their own bodies and lives and prosper, no matter their identities, their ZIP codes or the systems that were designed to keep them from thriving.

Donna Haghighat is CEO of the Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts; to learn more about the women’s fund, go online to mywomensfund.org