By Jokokan Honbu

Before the year 2000, the organization Jokokan consisted of the Main School (Honbu-dojo) and a number of schools under it.

The organization was extremely elitist, which was reflected in the fact that several higher-ranked and successful black belts from other karate systems shuddered and told that a 2-4.dan in the xxx system was equivalent to a 1-3.kyu in Yakami-ryu Karate-do in terms of knowledge. Likewise, experienced Hunter soldiers appreciatively stated that our physical graduation tests for Yakami-ryu instructors were at least as tough or tougher than the Corps' own physical evaluation tests for operational members.

Some of the old instructors can still remember Jokokan's old "Hell-week" training camps of 7 days duration from early morning to late evening, as well as unannounced night training. A typical training day consisted of 10 hours of hard training and 2 hours of Shiatsu massage. Added to this were the unannounced night trainings, and the requirement for constant vigilance according to the old Bujutsu and Budo "Life-death" philosophy. Despite top-trained top athlete level, it typically took 2-3 weeks physically and mentally to recover from such a camp - and there were three of these every year.

This elitist touch also left its clear mark on the number of members and the retention rate. In Denmark, we were never more than 40-60 members, the retention rate was below 10 %, and of the total number of members, 40 % were instructors of Yakami-ryu black or brown belt rank.

In the year 2000, Jokokan was bleeding to death, as most of the directors had also had family and a career to focus on.

At the same time, the Jokokan association was down to around 40-45 members spread over three Jokokan schools.

Jokokan had to change and adapt the totally elitist system so that there was room for everyone – the opening of the breadth of Yakami-ryu.

It was therefore vital that Jokokan successfully carried out a complete turnaround of both organization and systems. There was only one person in Jokokan's organization who had business experience with turnarounds and knew what a difficult process this entailed. It was both luck and bad luck that this was also the highest ranked and ranked Yakami-ryu practitioner.

But Jokokan Denmark, Member of Jokokan Europe had no choice. A turnaround had to be implemented at the same time as a violent expansion. A strategic plan 2000-2006 was drawn up, which was consistently implemented for Jokokan's survival under the motto "One for all, and all for one" - it had to be a team effort, so that none of the 18 Jokokan managers experienced extreme workloads. It quickly turned out to be "One-two for all and one-two for all".

At the same time, Jokokan ran into an embezzlement case with the former federal treasurer for a larger sum, and Jokokan leaders fell one by one, when they realized that an expansive turnaround strategy constantly required timely care, clear and visible leadership, cross-organizational coordination, hard work and communication, communication and communication.

In the years 2001-2004, the total workload of the association was 2,500-3,500 hours annually. Of these, the federation chairman was constantly responsible for approx. 70-75 %, the deputy chairman of 15 %, two board members for 10-15 % and other Jokokaners approx. 5 %.

The result of the expansive turnaround was very successful;

• Membership went from 600 % to around 350 members spread over 6 schools
• Jokokan's website with a constant 20-25,000 visitors per month from all over the world, of which approx. 20 % from Denmark
• Jokokan has become attractive to many sponsors from the business world
• The strategic plan 2000-2006 was fulfilled 3 years ahead of time, and replaced by a new one; 2004-2010

The federation chairman had fulfilled his promise and word of honour, after which others would gradually take over in the anchoring phase. This phase has lasted for the last year, and therefore a new structure has been adopted at the 2005 general meeting in order to mark the completion of the anchoring phase.

There have always been two parameters to focus on;

The system and the foundation stone – Jokokan Honbu-dojos for the three step Yakami-ryu systems

The community and the organization – Jokokan Denmark connected, member of Jokokan Europe

During the expansive turnaround, the main focus for the federation chairman was on management, establishment and development of the community and the organization, and a lot of space was given to Jokokan chief instructors within profiling and teaching in the system; Yakami-ryu Gensei Karate-do.

The expansive turnaround phase has been successfully completed and must now be completely anchored through a new structure tailored to the purpose.

This means that the federation chairman's focus can now shift to teaching and developing Jokokan's chief instructors, instructors and members - in his capacity as Chief Instructor for Jokokan Honbu-dojos.

This means increased and targeted focus on the group 4-6.dan, 1-3.dan and 3-1.kyu, as well as follow-up and correction on the largest group; 10-4.kyu. And finally more time and space to focus on his own training and development in the group 7-10.dan.

The General Assembly 2005 has therefore adopted the following which will come into force as of

June 1, 2005;

• Clear division of responsibilities between the organization Honbu-dojos and the Jokokan association
• The day-to-day responsibility for fulfilling the Strategic Plan 2004-2010 rests with a newly formed association's executive committee
• The executive committee's chairman is Søren Nielsen, the deputy chairman is Martin Hansen.
• The coordinating unit between Honbu-dojo and the Jokokan connection is JDK Operations; Chief instructor Kimu Sensei, Instructor Jens Shihan.
• The top management of Jokokan Denmark consists of JDK Operations and the management of the Business Committee.
• Jokokan Denmark's top management consists of Federation Chairman Kimu Bjarkmann, Deputy Chairman Jens Iversen, board members Søren Nielsen and Martin Hansen.
• The executive committee is measured and made responsible for the timely fulfillment of the Strategic Plan 2004-2010. This is done through a structured and thoroughly worked out time-dependent business plan for one year at a time. This is basically the measurement tool for the top management's quarterly meetings.