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A
special company committee, which he isn’t part of, is charged
with studying the options “totally objectively,” he said.
“The process is moving forward very constructively,” Dacus, who
is currently a director, told a small group of reporters at the
Tokyo headquarters of Seven & i Holdings Co., which operates
7-Eleven.
His appointment as chief executive still needs shareholders’
approval, set for May. Seven & i shares have risen more than 2%
in the past year.
Fluent in Japanese and English, Dacus said he was determined to
build a culture of leadership that he’s learned to admire from
his experience working at Walmart, Uniqlo and other retailers.
“If you’re not humble, you’re not listening to your customers.
You’re not learning. But if you’re not aggressive, you’re going
to get beat by your competitors,” he said.
Dacus stressed the 7-Eleven chain was growing globally. But the
stores were different by nation, and his intent was not to
duplicate everywhere the Japanese-style “conbini,” as they are
known here.
Lowering costs can be delivered with a better supply chain, for
instance, leveraging the chain’s global reach, while a cheaper
recipe for a food item will merely drive customers away, said
Dacus.
“This business in Japan has been built on innovation,” he said.
While declining to comment on U.S. President Donald Trump’s
policies, he acknowledged buyers will likely tighten their purse
strings in a slowdown.
The answer is to be the first choice for where they shop, Dacus
said, noting that his mother and Japanese relatives he watched
growing up never wasted anything. They would wrap leftover
dinner rolls at restaurants in paper to take home, he recalled.
“If you want to talk to some tough customers, you go talk to my
aunts,” he said.
“Japanese customers are incredibly demanding. That’s something
that really resonates with me. And that forms the way I think
about retail.”
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