The Fairfax Way

‘A Masterpiece’ — Mohnish Pabrai, U.S. value investor

‘The business book we have been waiting for’ — Andrew Willis, Globe and Mail columnist

‘A compelling chronicle of one of the great enduring business stories of our time’ — Lawrence Cunningham, author and governance expert

‘A must read” — Amanda Lang, CTV News Chief Financial Correspondent

It took 40 years but Prem Watsa and Fairfax Financial have finally opened up. David Thomas has the inside story of an inspiring and unusual success story, with a stock that has quietly trounced the S&P 500 over four decades. The Fairfax Way captures the dramatic rise & stall & rise again of what preeminent value investor Mohnish Pabrai calls “one of the best compounding machines on the planet.”

The book is a corporate comeback story, as well as an immigrant success story: A young Indian man who had no clue what a stock was when he arrived in Canada at 22, was introduced to capitalism and became a billionaire. How fate — and stealing a page from Warren Buffett’s playbook — led him to create a global insurance & investment empire. It’s a story of legendary prescient calls on market crashes (The Big Short) and value genius of betting big on your own shares when no one else would touch them (learn about The Big Long).

As investors, Fairfax and Watsa have always been contrarian. As unconventional operators, they shun the limelight, asking to be left alone to build value for shareholders their own way. Often, that made a complex company appear weirder than it was. They fostered top talent in investing and insurance worldwide, but never had a place for big egos or those with a habit of dropping F bombs.

The book reveals the way Fairfax manages in a highly decentralized way, to promote accountability by leaving decision-making in the hands of business leaders. A unique culture evolved that elevated respect and doing the right thing. For the value faithful, that approach to people, decentralization and long term thinking creates its own competitive moat, something Watsa hopes to leave intact for another century or two — long after he is gone.