Page 188 - The Way to the Top

Mayo A. SHATTUCK III

Chairman, President, and CEO of Constellation Energy Group

I was President of Alex. Brown & Sons, the oldest independent investment
bank in the country before it was sold to Bankers Trust in 1997. A
principle had guided the firm for almost two centuries, and it was:

“Customer first, firm second, individual interests third.” This simple
statement was the abridged version of a 1909 quote from John C. Brown,
one of the founder’s descendants:

I would like to leave with those who are to follow . . . a sense of
commercial honor, an absolute fairness in all dealings, a willingness to

suffer pecuniary loss if need be, rather than to tarnish by one unworthy
act the good name of the Firm.

At Alex. Brown, we asked all employees to literally sign a value
statement that included this principle. Throughout the years, I witnessed

and participated in hundreds of discussions that fell back to this core value
statement. It guided us through some difficult and many prosperous years.
Besides protecting the firm’s reputation and its relations with its
customers, it also had the effect of fostering teamwork and the idea that no

one individual was bigger than the firm.

As we forge ahead in the twenty-first century, it’s particularly
interesting that the values set two centuries ago—a focus on clients’
needs, uncompromising integrity, and a commitment to quality and

excellence—are still the fundamental foundation to success in business.

Customer first, firm second, individual interests third