7-Eleven and Claremont

Thanks to the COURIER reader who wrote in with the following bit of information.

We all know how residents effectively and thoroughly ran 7-Eleven out of town. The irony pointed out below is the long-standing connection between Claremont, through Masatoshi Ito of CGU, and the 7-Eleven corporation.

"The official name of Peter Drucker School of Management in Claremont is “Peter F. Drucker & Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management.”

Masatoshi Ito is the owner of 7-11. He owns the entire 7-11 corporation; both in the US and in Japan.

Ito's association with Peter Drucker/Claremont spanned over 30 years. Mr. Ito is now over 90 years old but traveled to Claremont just a few months ago in celebrating Drucker's 100 year centennial. We have no 7-11 store, but Claremont does have 30 years of 7-11 connection.

It was Peter Drucker's insistence that Ito's name be added to his school. Drucker was so impressed with Ito's customer focus success and highly ethical operation all grounded on principles learned by Ito from Drucker. Ito's monetary donations to the school was significant but far short of the level in getting his name on the school.

The dichotomy of the large number of Claremont residents demonizing 7-11 while the world renowned "management guru" having given this 7-11 owner the highest expression of praise.

Claremont is Claremont; I don’t think that even Drucker could have reversed a single resident’s opinion of 7-11."