SAM uses a 100% bottom-up, value-oriented approach as the basis of its investment philosophy and decision-making process. SAM believes that equity markets contain inefficiencies which can be exploited. These inefficiencies arise because of investors' increasing short term timescales, benchmark concerns and psychology. Practically speaking, exploiting inefficiencies is easier in the international marketplace than in the US arena and easier at the individual stock level rather than through overall market or economic forecasting.

In SAM's view, investment value is not determined solely by a company's current stock market rating; it must also take account of the company's future prospects. Future prospects are, in other words, a vital component in assessing value; the key point is not to overpay for it. SAM's investment process purchases stocks whose future profits are, when discounted back to the present, attractive relative to their current stock prices; SAM is by inclination risk averse and tends not to favour balance sheet leverage or dilutive/unrelated acquisitions.