Dictum Meum Pactum ... my word is my bond.

you have my word

Ethics, put simply, are the moral principles that govern a person's behaviour or conduct.

No one really talks about ethics in day to day business. If we look at all professional bodies or most organisations they will have adopted a set of ethical standards. So it's not as if they are not important or less relevant. It just doesn't seem to be a thing? ... because we all understand what is right or wrong. Ethics handily covers the black and white of this subject matter. But what about the world of grey in which we sometimes might find ourselves?

In the days before electronic trading, stock or security exchanges were a whir of traders who would consummate transactions with a verbal commitment to buy or sell a particular security at an agreed upon price. There were no witnesses to or recordings of the agreement, nor were there instant paper or electronic trails – just a promise. Imagine operating in this way today; agreeing on a price with the seller, with no lawyers, banks, insurers or accountants involved. For many years, this was how it worked. coined by the motto "my word is my bond". A commitment to honour promises ... a byword for deep and unbroken trust built up in relationships. The latin translation "Dictum Meum Pactum" remains the motto of the London Stock Exchange today.

This value lives on in many corporations today - less wrapped in ethical seriousness but often a core part of corporate value statements: "Deliver promises". These tend to talk more to corporate teams on not letting customers down, and less so to personal integrity.

Looking back, I recall many relationships built on trust where a commitment was made on a hand shake - both parties bound by their honour. Of course, there now (usually but not always) follows contracts and lawyers - that is the way of the world to document in nitty gritty detail the agreement thoroughly. The core committment was however made before then.

To corporate compliance professionals and CFOs thumbing through delegation of authority documents this will sound like sacrilege - but a great deal of business is still fundamentally done this way.

If this is correct then seek out and maintain those relationships where there is trust and honour. There is something old-fashioned, even old school, but uniquely reassuring that you can deal with an individual who is empowered to make agreements and has the moral and ethical integrity to know that a handshake is something that he/she can deliver and would never ever go back on. Business is, to some degree, still based upon... trust.

Lawyers will tell you that, whilst a verbal agreement is still an agreement, it is effectively worthless on evidential grounds until pen (virtual or otherwise) is put to paper and they are of course pragmatically correct. We all have the scars of promises being broken and I would therefore advise, wherever possible, that every agreement is documented, evidenced and sealed so tight in a legally binding agreement that it is impossible break.

But I would also advise that you seek out those customers or partners or suppliers who are able to build relationships of trust upon which there can be mutual reliance. There are still people out there with whom you can make an agreement and look you in the eye and you know that that agreement is cast-iron. Some people are just built differently with impeccable ethics and great morals and professional principles. If you do come across one, value that relationship, but remember it has to be mutual.

There remains something deep-seated and very powerful in saying 'you have my word'.

My word is my bond.