Speaking last week at the Active Advantage forum in Sydney, Stuart Dunbar, a partner at Baillie Gifford, showed attendees a mind map composed of a number of the companies his active investment strategy utilises.

With big names like Tesla, Facebook and Amazon all appearing, Mr Dunbar commented that “if you run an analysis on this portfolio, I think you’d probably see tech as a big factor”.

But, according to the investment expert, such a conclusion doesn’t make any sense anymore.

Instead, he sees technology as “simply a common factor in any company that is likely to grow” in the foreseeable future.

But why?

“Because that’s the environment we all live in,” he stated.

In his time on stage, the investor said the focus on stock markets is one of the things getting in the way of people achieving good outcomes from active management.

Instead, he said it’s about time scales, and how we measure and present performance between managers.

“I think we are trying to make a science out of an art,” Mr Dunbar suggested.

“The art of capital deployment is more about creativity and imagination than the analysis of spreadsheets and historic cash flows.”

The commentary comes after the ASX last week announced the creation of its own all-tech index. 

A CEO has also recently divulged the difficulties investors can have when trying to pick individual winners in the current tech boom.