Short Briefings on Long Term Thinking - Baillie Gifford Beyond the benchmark: Baillie Gifford CEO on why being different pays off
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Sep 16, 2025 Tim Campbell, CEO and managing partner at Baillie Gifford, shares insights from his extensive career in investment management. He emphasizes the firm’s conviction-led, long-term investment strategy that prioritizes exceptional growth companies over benchmarks. Tim discusses the value of being 'out of step' with market trends and the role of patient clients. He delves into Baillie Gifford’s investments in private companies like AI lab Anthropic and highlights the increasing importance of AI in investment processes, ensuring a shift toward insightful analysis.
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Benchmark-Agnostic Investing Works
- Baillie Gifford abandoned benchmark-driven investing to focus on exceptional long-term growth businesses.
- Starting from company merits rather than index weights created the foundation for their long-term outperformance.
Early Client Support Enabled Change
- Early adopters like Australian clients and Vanguard supported Baillie Gifford's high-conviction approach.
- That client buy-in allowed the firm to pilot and scale its benchmark-agnostic strategies despite initial scepticism.
Active Investing Is Increasingly Distinct
- Passive, quant and algorithmic flows now dominate market activity, making active fundamental investing a minority pursuit.
- This divergence increases the value of deliberate, research-driven active managers like Baillie Gifford.