Scottish Mortgage's Slater: We place an 'outsized degree of importance' on company founders to drive returns

Baillie Gifford addresses poor returns

‘Key man risk’ is often seen as a bad thing but Tom Slater, lead manager on the Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust, said that having a central figure associated with a company was a good thing for driving returns.

Like many Baillie Gifford portfolios, the house's flagship trust invests in several names whose reputation is closely linked to its founders. The likes of Tesla and Amazon are intimately associated with their creators - Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos respectively - figures Slater and his co-manager Lawrence Burns said were a credit to those companies achieving outsized returns. The latter said that having the founders ever-present in the management of the company is "very important to enabling companies to stay focused on their long-term mission", especially during periods of poor performance ...