A 7-Eleven Heirs $50 Billion Fight to Keep the Company in the Family

Junro Ito flew to California this year on a mission: The billionaire executive at Seven & i Holdings, the Japanese parent company of 7-Eleven, felt the company had lost its way.He wanted to revive the culture fostered by his father, the company’s founder.Mr.

Ito wanted to establish training workshops for Seven & i employees and was seeking advice from experts at Claremont Graduate University, where the management guru Peter Drucker, a close friend and adviser to his father, had taught for decades.The workshops would instill in executives and others at Seven & i the philosophy espoused by Mr.Drucker — that the purpose of a company is to serve its customers, not to maximize profits for shareholders.Back in Tokyo, the company started hosting the monthly management workshops just as Mr.

Ito, a vice president at Seven & i, began plotting a multibillion-dollar takeover.His family owns a minority stake in Seven & i, and he wanted to keep it from being acquired by a foreign rival.Seven & i has more than 85,000 stores, and 7-Eleven is a cornerstone of Japanese society.

People who know Mr.Ito, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said his fixation on Mr.

Drucker offered a window into his plan for the company....