Terry Smith, founder of Fundsmith Equity Fund and author of "Accounting for Growth," is one of Britain's most outspoken and successful fund managers, building one of Europe's largest and best-performing equity funds through an uncompromising quality-growth investment philosophy. His approach is captured in three words: "Buy good companies. Don't overpay. Do nothing." Smith's definition of "good companies" is precise and demanding: businesses must generate high returns on capital employed without excessive leverage, must have a business model that is genuinely difficult to disrupt, and must exhibit consistent compound growth in earnings per share over long time periods. He favors companies with what he calls "intangible economic fortresses" — strong brand recognition, customer loyalty, distribution advantages, or intellectual property that competitors cannot replicate. Fundsmith's portfolio is concentrated in approximately 25–30 companies, held for an average of more than five years, with very low annual turnover. Smith is notably dismissive of market timing, macro forecasting, and factor-based investing, arguing that these activities add more cost and noise than value. His concentrated quality-growth approach has generated exceptional returns since Fundsmith's 2010 inception, with the fund consistently ranking among the top-performing global equity funds over five and ten-year periods. Smith is also a sharp critic of ESG investing as currently practiced, arguing that the movement conflates marketing with investment analysis and often harms returns without proportionate social benefit. His philosophy teaches that the hardest part of quality-growth investing is not the selection — it is the discipline to hold through periods when the market disagrees with your thesis.