What Aikido Taught 20 Global Executives About Leadership — and Why It Matters Right Now

IBCircle Global Executives on the Aikido Mat at One Dojo, Boulder, Colorado, USA

On June 25, IBCircle brought twenty internationally active executives from twelve countries to a dojo in Boulder, Colorado. What happened next was unlike any business event we have hosted in 22 years.

There is a question that most leadership development programs never ask: what does your body know that your mind hasn't caught up with yet?

Kei Izawa has been asking it for 57 years — on martial arts mats across Europe, Asia, and the Americas, and in boardrooms across four continents. As a 7th Dan Aikido master, former Chairman of the International Aikido Federation (2016–2021), and former senior executive at GM/Opel, he has spent his career at the intersection of two disciplines that most people assume have nothing to do with each other. His conclusion: they are the same discipline.

On June 25, 2026, IBCircle invited twenty globally active CEOs, founders, executives, and investors to test that idea in person — at One Dojo in Boulder, Colorado, hosted by Abel Villacorta, founder and head of One Dojo. The result was one of the most distinctive and memorable events in IBCircle's 22-year history.

"You cannot control what you collide with. You can only control what you blend with."

— Kei Izawa

Why Aikido? Why Now?

The timing was not accidental. The global business environment in 2026 is exactly the kind of environment that the Aikido approach was designed for: Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous (VUCA). Trade relationships that looked stable three years ago are being renegotiated. Supply chains are being restructured. AI is reshaping entire industries. And the competitive threats no longer arrive from the expected direction — BYD was a battery company; Ajinomoto made MSG; Fujifilm made photographic film.

In this environment, the traditional leadership response — push harder, force outcomes, outlast the competition through sheer effort and rigidity — is precisely what is failing. Companies like Zenith, RCA, and Kodak did not fail because they were not working hard enough. They failed because they met disruption with force rather than transformation.

Kei Izawa has a different model. He calls it the Aikido Executive.

What Happened in the Dojo

The evening began with international networking — twenty executives from twelve countries, representing Japanese, European, US, and globally active companies based in Colorado, along with a special guest of considerable significance: Sanae Kanno, the Japanese Consul for PR and Public Affairs from the Consulate General of Japan in Denver.

What followed was unlike any IBCircle event before it. Executives took off their shoes, stepped onto the mat, and experienced — physically, in their own bodies — what it feels like to redirect incoming force rather than resist it. They practiced Tenkan, the 180-degree pivot that transforms a collision into a redirection. They felt the difference between tensing against an opponent's push and blending with it. And they began to understand, through direct physical experience rather than theory, why Kei says that fluidity always beats force.

Abel Villacorta's mind-body segment added a dimension that no conference talk can replicate: the direct experience of what it means to lead from a calm, centered state rather than from reactive tension. Tension, Abel explained — drawing on the lineage of Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of Aikido — hides your assets. The leader who is chronically tense is blind to the resources, relationships, and options that are right in front of them.

"Aikido is trying to use the different elements of the body to avoid confrontation and collision. And if there is some collision, you find a way to redirect energy. Alignment, not brute-force collision."

— Kei Izawa

Five Things the Room Learned

1.  Fluidity beats force.  The most formidable position is not the most rigid — it is the most adaptable. In a VUCA world, the leaders and organizations that survive are those who transform rather than resist.

2.  True power comes from total integration.  Kei's demonstration with the body's 650+ muscles, 350 joints, and 4,000 tendons was one of the most vivid organizational metaphors in recent IBCircle history. When everything moves from a shared center, the power is extraordinary. When it doesn't, it's just friction.

3.  Conflict is energy to be redirected.  Musubi — the knotting, the blending — means there are no enemies. A lawsuit, a hostile board member, a disruptive competitor: these are not threats to fight. They are incoming energy to absorb, align with, and redirect toward a better outcome.

4.  A stable internal center is a performance imperative.  The most effective strategic decisions emerge from a centered, non-reactive state. This is not wellness philosophy. It is a competitive advantage — and one that almost no leadership program teaches.

5.  Ikigai — purpose — applies to organizations as much as individuals.  Kei closed the session with the Japanese concept of Ikigai: the intersection of what you love, what you are good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for. The businesses that endure are those that know not just what they do, but why it matters.

"Fluidity beats force. The strongest position is not the most rigid — it is the most adaptable."

— Kei Izawa, The Aikido Executive

A Note on the Evening

The event closed with international networking, drinks, and Aikido-inspired catering prepared by Nia Harianto — an Indonesian member of One Dojo — whose food was one of the most warmly appreciated elements of the evening. Kei Izawa signed copies of his latest book, The Victory Paradox, and the conversations between executives, the Japanese Consul, and both speakers continued well past the formal close.

For those who were there: the full IBCircle Event Report — The Aikido Executive: Leading Through Alignment, Not Collision — is available now. It includes the five key takeaways, five practical actions for global executives, the full session timeline, and key quotes from Kei and Abel.

For those who were not: watch this space. This is exactly the kind of event IBCircle exists to create — and we will be back.

"True victory is self-victory. As you train, you help your opponent improve — and you wish that your opponent helps you improve as well. It is not I win, you lose. We don't have that mentality in Aikido."

— Kei Izawa

The IBCircle Event Report: The Aikido Executive is available now at www.ibcircle.com/event-reports. IBCircle's next Think Tank events are August 25, September 23 and October 22, 2026.

To explore IBCircle membership — and access future Think Tank reports and Top Line Considerations volumes as they are released at preferential rates— visit www.ibcircle.com/membership.

International Business Circle (IBCircle) is a Colorado-based Think Tank and independent business network for CEOs, founders, executives, and investors in internationally active businesses. Founded in 2004. Members from 30+ countries. Twice named Business Networking Organisation of the Year — Global Innovation and Excellence Awards 2025 & 2026.