A brief history of Hattaway & Associates Ltd
Hattaways was set up in 1993, in Christchurch, New Zealand. Founder, Peter Hattaway, a lawyer, had held positions in management and law in debt collection and credit reporting businesses before moving to credit management roles at Telecom New Zealand.
His intention was that the main function of the new business would be to provide consultancy on credit management matters. However, by 1995, credit management training had become Hattaways' main focus. By 1997, Hattaways was the market leader in credit management training in New Zealand, as the other players found themselves unable to compete and pulled out. In that year, Hattaways began a relationship with leading New Zealand debt collector and credit reporter, Baycorp, which allowed the latter to offer Hattaways training to its clients. From 1995 until 2001 the business developed primarily as a credit management training provider, with public courses being the main product.
Hattaway & Associates' profile in Australia grew substantially with the publication of Peter Hattaway's Australian book, Paid in Full: A Guide to Credit Management in Australia, in 1997. This led soon afterwards to a relationship with Data Advantage in Australia, akin to that with Baycorp in New Zealand. (Data Advantage and Baycorp subsequently merged in 2001.)
A major milestone was the provision, in 2002, of collection training modules for Telstra (who had 500 collection staff on the phones in call centres around Australia). In-house training and consultancy work, the role for which the business was originally intended, have come very much to the fore for Hattaways in the last few years.
No-one else thinks studying credit is as important as we do
We provide consultancy and training on credit management matters throughout Australasia. Credit management and debt collection receive little academic attention (especially in comparison to fields such as marketing). Or, to put it another way, no-one else thinks the study and teaching of credit management is as important as we do. We believe our experience and the quality of people we put into the study of credit management issues give us more insight into a wide range of credit matters than is available elsewhere.
We have always believed that the discipline of writing is crucial to the development of ideas. In 1994, Peter Hattaway wrote Total Quality Credit Management: How to Get Paid in New Zealand. Law Book Company published Paid in Full: A Guide to Credit Management in Australia in 1997. Both were based on an extensive process of interviewing credit managers in a variety of industries in New Zealand, Australia, and the United States.
Hattaways started writing monthly columns in 1995 for the Mercantile Gazette, the leading credit-related magazine in New Zealand, and then in 1998 added a regular article for the New Zealand Chartered Accountants Journal. Frustration with the lack of a suitable Australian magazine to advertise in led in 2000 to the creation of the monthly electronic publication - the Australian Credit Management Law Bulletin. This establishes credibility with our Australian customers and ensures that in our specialty area we are up with the latest changes in the Australian law. The New Zealand Credit Management Law Bulletin was added to the mix in 2001.
What don't we do?
We don't practice law, collect debts, provide credit reports, write software, provide or broker credit insurance, or head-hunt staff.