Short Briefings on Long Term Thinking - Baillie Gifford
Baillie Gifford
4.9from 38 ratings
- 66
- Episodes
- 38
- Ratings
- Bi-weekly
- Cadence
- 2019
- First episode
About Short Briefings on Long Term Thinking - Baillie Gifford
Baillie Gifford’s Short Briefings on Long Term Thinking bring valuable insights into the benefits of taking the long view. You’ll hear frank, thought-provoking opinions from our team in Edinburgh and experts around the world. These podcasts do not constitute an offer of or solicitation for purchase or sale of securities or provision of any investment services. They are provided for information only and should not be considered as investment advice or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a particular investment. Our podcasts have been compiled with considerable care to ensure their accuracy at the date of publication. No representation or warranty, express or implied, is made to their accuracy or completeness. For further details please see our legal information at www.bailliegifford.com
- Publisher
- Baillie Gifford
- Category
- business
- Language
- en
- Explicit
- No
- First episode
- 21 Jan 2019
- Latest episode
- 28 Sept 2026
Latest episodes
66 episodes in the feed.
28 Sept 2026
Emerging markets: when the crowd gets it wrong
The biggest car-carrying ships on the planet. A chip-testing rig that weighs as much as a small elephant. Investment manager Alex Summers takes us inside some of emerging markets’ least-watched growth companies to explain how his team sees what others have missed. “Often, the crowd is going to be right,” he acknowledges, but when it’s not, long-termism, access to management and asking different questions are key to how his team determines investment opportunities. Background: Alex Summers is co-manager of our Emerging Markets Leading Companies Fund, an investment manager in our Emerging Markets Equity Team and a member of the International Growth Portfolio Construction Group. In this conversation, he tells Short Briefings… host Leo Kelion why one of his team’s guiding principles is that before investing in a company, he and his colleagues must be able to articulate the critical uncertainty about a stock and why others may be wrong. “Often, you can observe something about a company, and it may be true,” he explains. “But if everybody else believes that, you’re not going to create any additional outperformance by owning those companies.” Companies discussed include: Hyundai Glovis – the logistics company that’s invested in a dozen ultra-sized ships and now sees an opportunity in transporting spent electric vehicle batteries Chroma ATE – the test-equipment company whose customised cabinets provide critical checks for NVIDIA and Nasa Silergy – the mainland China-based semiconductor company specialising in power-management chips Reliance Industries – India’s most valuable company and its heavy investment in solar panels, green hydrogen and battery storage systems Toss – the South Korean financial super-app that provides banking, payment and ecommerce services Resources: Baillie Gifford website (https://www.bailliegifford.com/) Emerging Markets Leading Companies Fund (https://www.bailliegifford.com/en/uk/individual-investors/funds/emerging-markets-leading-companies-fund/) Emerging markets: from imitators to innovators (video) (https://www.bailliegifford.com/insights/ic-article/2025-q4-disruption-week-2025-write-up-emerging-markets-from-imitators-to-innovators-10058929/) Emerging markets: the next engines of global growth (https://www.bailliegifford.com/ic-article/2025-q2-podcast-49-emerging-markets-engines-of-global-growth-10055654/) Short Briefings on Long Term Thinking podcast archive (https://www.bailliegifford.com/podcasts/) When consensus fails (https://www.bailliegifford.com/en/ireland/professional-investor/insights/ic-article/2026-q2-when-consensus-fails-em-research-in-practice-10062752/) Companies mentioned include: · Chroma ATE (https://www.chromaate.com/en/index) · Hyundai Glovis (https://www.glovis.net/en/home) · Meituan (https://www.meituan.com/en-US/about-us) · NVIDIA (https://www.nvidia.com/en-gb/) · PB Fintech (https://www.pbfintech.in/) · Reliance Industries (https://www.ril.com/) · Samsung Electronics (https://www.samsung.com/) · Silergy (https://www.silergy.com/) · SK hynix (https://www.skhynix.com/) · Talabat (https://www.talabat.com/uae) · Toss (https://toss.im/en-us) · TSMC (https://www.tsmc.com/english) Timecodes (audio version): 00:00 Introduction 01:45 From Toronto to Edinburgh 02:35 A lesser-covered class of companies 03:35 Taking a five-to-10-year view 04:15 Forming non-consensus views 05:35 Hyundai Glovis and EV batteries 07:10 Corporate governance reform in South Korea 09:30 Getting access to senior leaders 11:50 Chroma ATE’s chip-testing equipment 14:50 Building conviction in Silergy 16:30 Declining to invest in Talabat 18:20 Visiting Reliance Industries in Jamnagar 20:45 Retaining sell discipline 22:00 Toss and private companies 24:15 Moving towards physical assets 25:35 Podcasts and Substack picks Glossary of terms (in order of mention): Magnificent Seven: A nickname for seven large US technology-related companies – Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, NVIDIA and Tesla. Holding period: The length of time an investment is owned. Corporate governance: The systems and processes by which a company is directed and controlled, including board accountability and the treatment of shareholders. Minority shareholder: An investor who owns less than a controlling stake in a company and cannot direct it alone. Bottom-up investing: Assessing individual companies rather than starting with forecasts for economies, markets or sectors. Economies of scale: Advantages that arise as a company handles more volume, reducing the average cost of each unit. Profit margin: The proportion of revenue left as profit after costs have been deducted. Graphics processing unit (GPU): A chip designed to perform many calculations in parallel, originally for graphics but now also widely used in AI. Analog chip: A semiconductor that processes continuous real-world signals, such as sound, temperature or voltage. Flotation or initial public offering (IPO): The process by which a private company first offers shares to public investors and lists them on a stock exchange. Cash flow: The movement of money into and out of a business over time. Capital allocation: The decisions a company makes about how to use its money, such as investing in growth, making acquisitions, paying dividends or reducing debt. Business vertical: A distinct business area within a company, usually focused on a particular product, service or market. Overweight: Holding more of an investment, sector or theme than the index used for a comparison. Fintech: Technology-driven financial services, such as digital payments, lending or banking tools. Insurance brokerage: A business that helps customers compare and buy insurance, acting as an intermediary between them and insurers. Capital-light: Describes a business that needs relatively little investment in physical assets to operate and grow.
31 Aug 2026
Greek loans, Polish denim, German cookers: the new shape of European growth
“Europe looks more like emerging markets than it does North America,” Joe Faraday, Baillie Gifford’s new head of European equities, suggests in this conversation. He means that growth takes many forms across the continent, creating an eclectic mix of companies to choose from and specific circumstances to consider. As he reveals, it’s led him to reposition the portfolios under his watch, broadening the types of companies they contain. Background: Joe Faraday is our head of European equities and investment manager of the Baillie Gifford European Growth Trust and European Fund. In this conversation, he tells Short Briefings… host Leo Kelion about some of the stocks he has added to and removed from the portfolios of our European Growth Strategy. Faraday took charge earlier this year with a mandate to improve performance. “We’ve changed rather a lot,” he says, regarding efforts to broaden the mix of growth themes the portfolios he manages tap into, while ensuring that he grounds each buy or sell decision on an intimate understanding of each stock. Companies discussed include: Piraeus Bank – Greece’s biggest lender, expanding its reach with new insurance, asset management and digital banking services LPP – the Polish retail group behind Sinsay, the rapidly growing fashion and homeware brand big in central and eastern Europe TotalEnergies – the French energy group involved in exploration and production, liquefied natural gas and renewables Rheinmetall – the German defence contractor, whose activities range from drones and armoured vehicles to ammunition and satellites Bending Spoons – the Italian app acquirer that rearchitects and revitalises mature digital businesses Rational – the German manufacturer of ‘combi ovens’ designed for commercial kitchens Resources: A disciplined case for European Growth (https://media.bailliegifford.com/mws/usfcjns5/20260525101804-20260521_european-equities_a-disciplined-case-for-european-growth_10063185.pdf) European megatrends: what’s on my mind? (https://www.bailliegifford.com/insights/ic-article/2026-q2-european-megatrends-whats-on-my-mind-10063342/) Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg (https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/444545/supercommunicators-by-duhigg-charles/9781847943644) The European opportunity set (https://www.bailliegifford.com/insights/ic-article/2026-q2-the-european-opportunity-set-10063343/) The Short Briefings… archive (https://www.bailliegifford.com/podcasts/) Companies mentioned include: · Airbus (https://www.airbus.com/en) · Allegro (https://allegro.pl/) · Bending Spoons (https://www.bendingspoons.com/) · CaixaBank (https://www.caixabank.com/en/home_en.html) · Dino Polska (https://grupadino.pl/en/) · Exail (https://www.exail.com/) · Iberdrola (https://www.iberdrola.com/home) · Piraeus Bank (https://www.piraeusbank.gr/en/individuals) · LPP (https://www.lpp.com/en/) · LVMH (https://www.lvmh.com/en) · Nexans (https://www.nexans.com/) · Rational (https://www.rational-online.com/en_gb/home/) · Rheinmetall (https://www.rheinmetall.com/en) · TEKEVER (https://www.tekever.com/) · TotalEnergies (https://totalenergies.com/) Timecodes: 00:00 Introduction 01:50 From paint-making to portfolio management 03:30 Investment track record 05:25 Broadening the growth types 07:05 Megatrends and individual circumstances 08:45 Rearmament, energy security and consumption 10:30 “Europe’s not like Marmite” 11:45 TotalEnergies – a mega energy business 16:30 Rheinmetall – a catch-all defence contractor 19:05 LPP – the Zara of eastern Europe 22:20 Piraeus Bank pushes into insurance 24:40 LVMH and the outlook for luxury 26:40 Building on Bending Spoons 28:50 “Decisive action has been taken” 29:35 Book choice Glossary of terms (in order of mention): Small-cap: Shares in companies with relatively small total stock market values. Compound: Gains that build on earlier gains, so an investment’s value can grow at an increasing rate over time. Exploration and production: The part of the oil and gas industry that searches for reserves and extracts them. Liquefied natural gas (LNG): Natural gas cooled into liquid form so it can be stored and transported more easily. Integrated power: A business that combines several parts of the electricity system, such as generation, trading and supply, often across conventional and renewable sources. Capital allocation: The decisions a company makes about how to use its money, including investing in operations, buying businesses, repaying debt or returning cash to shareholders. Free cash flow: Cash left after a company has paid its operating costs and the investment needed to maintain or expand the business. Capital markets day: An event where a listed company gives investors and analysts detailed information about its strategy, operations and financial prospects. International Monetary Fund (IMF): An international institution that monitors economies, advises governments and can lend to countries facing financial difficulty. Flotation: The process by which a private company lists its shares on a public stock market, often through an initial public offering (IPO).
4 Aug 2026
SpaceX: past, present, future – and finding the next world-changers
Baillie Gifford first invested in SpaceX in 2018, nearly eight years before its record-setting stock market listing. Investment manager Luke Ward, who championed the holding, discusses what first drew him to the business, why Starship is critical to its future, and reveals where he’s now looking for another company with industry-upturning potential. Background: Luke Ward is an investment manager on Baillie Gifford’s Private Companies Team and co-manager of Edinburgh Worldwide Investment Trust. In this conversation, he tells Short Briefings… host Leo Kelion how SpaceX’s first successful landing and recovery of one of its rocket boosters led him to explore an investment in the company, and how he gained access to its senior management. Ward also explores three growth drivers that could determine its future success: regularly flying a new, larger spacecraft, Starship, into orbit upgrading its Starlink broadband network with satellites that connect to smartphones directly putting and operating datacentres in orbit In addition, he discusses some of the risks in being a long-term shareholder in the Elon Musk-run endeavour. Ward also reveals why he thinks the construction industry is ripe for disruption from 3D-printing robots. Resources: Baillie Gifford Private Companies Team (http://bailliegifford.com/privatecompanies) Edinburgh Worldwide Investment Trust (https://www.bailliegifford.com/en/uk/individual-investors/funds/edinburgh-worldwide-investment-trust/) Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance (https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/419660/elon-musk-by-ashlee-vance/9780753555644) Private companies: our philosophy (https://www.bailliegifford.com/insights/ic-video/2026-q1-private-companies-10061626/) Quantum, space, fusion: three firms engineering the future (https://www.bailliegifford.com/insights/ic-article/2025-q1-three-firms-engineering-the-future-10052988/) SpaceX: the economics of the impossible (https://www.bailliegifford.com/insights/ic-article/2026-q3-ltgg-reflections-spacex-10064379/) Starlink: broadband from above (https://www.bailliegifford.com/insights/ic-article/2024-q1-trust-48-starlink-10045464/) Titan robotic construction system (https://www.iconbuild.com/technology/program) Companies mentioned include: · Alphabet (Google) (https://abc.xyz/) · Anthropic (https://www.anthropic.com/) · Astranis (https://www.astranis.com/) · Rocket Lab (https://rocketlabcorp.com/) · SpaceX (https://www.spacex.com/) · Tesla (https://www.tesla.com/) Timecodes: 00:05 Introduction 02:00 A successor to the Space Shuttle 03:55 Reimagining a market 05:55 Reusable rockets 06:30 Mars as a ‘forcing function’ 07:55 First encounter with Gwynne Shotwell 10:10 The ‘scale of the Dutch East India Company’ 12:40 What we got wrong 14:25 The advantages of early access 17:50 Starship’s cost advantage 19:40 Next-generation Starlink satellites 22:30 AI and space-based datacentres 27:20 SpaceX’s scale of ambition 29:00 Governance risk 31:05 Flywheels and stepping stones 32:55 3D-printed homes 34:25 A “nerdy” book pick Glossary of terms (in order of mention): Path dependency: The idea that earlier choices shape and constrain what becomes possible later. Rocket booster: The part of a rocket that provides extra thrust during launch, usually early in flight. Orbital-class craft: A spacecraft or rocket powerful enough to reach orbit around Earth. Market capitalisation: A public company’s total value on the stock market, calculated from its share price and number of shares. Vertical integration: When a company owns and controls more of its supply chain itself, rather than relying on outside suppliers. Point solution: A product or service built to solve one specific problem, rather than a broader system of related problems. Balance sheet: A financial statement showing what a company owns, owes and is worth at a point in time. Roadshow: A series of presentations in which a company and its advisers meet potential investors before a share sale or listing. Cost curve: The trend in how the cost of producing or delivering something changes as technology improves or scale increases. Geostationary orbit: An orbit where a satellite moves at the same rate as Earth rotates, so it appears to stay above the same point on the planet. Transistors: Tiny electronic switches used in computer chips to control electrical signals. S-curve: A pattern where progress starts slowly, accelerates rapidly and then slows again as a technology matures. Ancillary services: Supporting services or costs around the main product or technology, rather than the core hardware itself. Orders of magnitude: Very large multiples, usually powers of 10. Radiation hardening: Designing or adapting electronics so they can keep working despite radiation in space. Cap table: Short for capitalisation table, a record of who owns a company’s shares and on what terms. Thermal mass: A material’s ability to absorb, store and release heat, helping to smooth temperature changes.
Who has been a guest on Short Briefings on Long Term Thinking - Baillie Gifford
Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.
- Andrew Keiller
- Christiana Figueres
- Cheryl Mehrkar
- Michael Lewis
- Zeke Faux
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- Apple Podcasts (US)
- 5.0 / 5
- 11 ratings
- Spotify
- 4.9 / 5
- 27 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 32 / 100
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- Engagement
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