Chuck Akre has produced an exceptional long-term track record as a mutual fund manager, and he recently offered some strategy tips in an interview with The Motley Fool.

Akre cited three main factors that go into his assessment of a company, the Fool’s Eric Bleeker reports: its business model (i.e., whether it has a competitive advantage that will hold up); its people (in terms of management’s incentive structure, skills, and integrity); and reinvestment (can it reinvest at above-average returns to create a market-beating “compounding machine”?)

Akre also offered his thoughts on the lessons to take away from the 2008 financial crisis and market crash, and explained why he’s grown warmer on some discount retailers.