Glossary

The words used in this course. Many are said differently in the lessons; that wording is noted at the end of each entry. Look up what you need; it is not meant to be read through.

About the IT Passport exam

This course is not exam preparation. The exam covers far more than this course does — system planning, process notation, standardisation, security law. None of those appear here.

There is overlap, though. The strategy section of the exam uses words such as break-even point, fixed and variable costs, operating profit and KPI tree. In this course those names arrived after the calculation, not before it.

Whether to sit the exam is your decision. (Scope as of syllabus Ver. 6.5, 6 September 2026.)

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Operating profit
Session 1 · Session 2 · Session 8
Revenue less the cost of goods and the cost of selling. The cleanest read on the core business.
The lessons say: What the main business left
Operating margin
Session 1 · Session 8
Operating profit over revenue. Trillions are hard to feel; ten yen in a hundred is not.
The lessons say: Yen kept per 100 yen sold

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Hypothetical bias
Session 3
Stated willingness to pay runs about 21% above what people actually pay. Not lying — the future is not yet real.
The lessons say: Stated prices come out too high
What the original says · Schmidt and Bijmolt (2020), a meta-analysis of 115 effect sizes from 77 studies in 47 papers.
Value Propositions
Session 1 · Session 2 · Session 7 · Session 14
The centre block. Not the product name, but what changes for the buyer.
The lessons say: What the money is exchanged for
What the original says · The original describes it as the bundle of products and services that create value for a specific customer segment.
Share / stock
Session 1 · Session 2 · Session 11 · Session 12 · Session 13
Your stake is your shares over the total. Share count and percentage say the same thing two ways.
The lessons say: A slice of the company
Shareholder
Session 11 · Session 12 · Session 13
Three rights: dividends, residual assets, and voting. Only the third takes effect from day one.
The lessons say: Whoever holds the shares
Shareholders' meeting
Session 11 · Session 12 · Session 13
Decisions about the shape of the company itself — not the day-to-day, which belongs to the board.
The lessons say: Where the shareholders decide
Voting rights
Session 11 · Session 12
One share, one vote. Two lines matter: a simple majority and two-thirds.
The lessons say: The right to vote on big decisions
Dilution
Session 12
Issue new shares and your count stays but the total grows. Not bad in itself — a smaller slice of a larger pie.
The lessons say: Your stake falls without selling anything
Agree how you will decide
Session 13
Settle the rule before you disagree, or you will disagree about the rule too.
Competitor
Session 6 · Session 14
Not only the same trade. Buyers compare ways of settling a problem: the same trade, a different method, and doing nothing — the last being the strongest and the hardest to see.
The lessons say: Whoever else settles the same errand
Personal guarantee
Session 11
The heaviest term when borrowing. It reaches past limited liability to personal assets.
The lessons say: The founder personally backs the loan
Ordinary profit
Session 8
Operating profit plus or minus interest and currency effects. The steps do not always go down.
The lessons say: After the money side
Earnings report (tanshin)
Session 1 · Session 2 · Session 8 · Session 14
Listed companies publish a year of revenue and profit. Anyone can read it on the company site.
The lessons say: The annual results filing
Cost of goods
Session 2 · Session 7 · Session 8 · Session 14
What the sold item itself cost. Rent and wages come out of what is left after it.
The lessons say: What the goods themselves cost
Impairment loss
Session 8
Cutting the book value of an asset that no longer earns its price. No cash leaves, but profit falls.
The lessons say: Writing an asset down
Advertising model
Session 1 · Session 2
Users pay nothing; advertisers pay. The size of the audience is what the advertiser buys.
The lessons say: The user is not the payer
Customer Development
Session 3
Check before you build, not after. The fourteen sessions of this course follow this shape.
The lessons say: Checking the buyer, step by step
What the original says · Steve Blank's line: there are no facts inside the building — get out.
Customer Segments
Session 2 · Session 3 · Session 14
The right-hand block. Writing “everyone” here blurs the other eight.
The lessons say: Who buys
What the original says · The original describes it as defining the groups of people or organizations the enterprise aims to reach and serve.
Customer Relationships
Session 2
One-off, or coming back. Self-service is a choice, not a shortfall.
The lessons say: How you stay with the buyer
What the original says · The original describes the types of relationships a company establishes with specific customer segments.
Cost Structure
Session 2 · Session 8
The bottom row. Filings give totals, not the breakdown — so this block often stays blank.
The lessons say: Everything that goes out
What the original says · The original describes all costs incurred to operate a business model.
Fixed costs
Session 8 · Session 10
Rent, connectivity, salaries. They arrive in a month with no customers at all.
The lessons say: Costs that come whether you sell or not

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Subscription
Session 1
Money arrives every month while the customer keeps using. Revenue is people multiplied by monthly price multiplied by months retained.
The lessons say: Paying every month to keep using
Own funds
Session 11 · Session 14
Not only savings: tools already bought, and money given without a repayment promise, count too.
The lessons say: The money you bring yourself
Revenue Streams
Session 2
Not everyone in customer segments appears here. Free users are a segment but not a revenue stream.
The lessons say: Where the money comes in
What the original says · The original describes the cash a company generates from each customer segment.
Equity investment
Session 1 · Session 11 · Session 12 · Session 14
Nothing to repay, so no repayment pressure. In exchange, from day one someone else is in the decisions.
The lessons say: No repayment; you hand over part of the company
Key Activities
Session 2
The things that, if you stopped doing them, would stop the business.
The lessons say: What you do
What the original says · The original describes the most important things a company must do to make its business model work.
Separation of ownership and control
Session 12
Shareholders choose directors; directors run the company. Taking investment does not by itself remove you.
The lessons say: Owner and operator need not be the same
Credit Guarantee Corporation
Session 11
It makes lending possible without a track record. If it pays, your debt does not vanish — the creditor changes.
The lessons say: The public body that pays if you cannot
Business plan (for financing)
Session 11
The forms differ; the questions do not. They are the blocks this course has been filling since Session 1.
The lessons say: The plan you submit to borrow
Income statement
Session 8
Revenue less costs, one named step at a time. Reading down shows which step the money fell at.
The lessons say: Profit, step by step down the page
Break-even point
Session 8 · Session 10 · Session 14
Fixed costs divided by what one sale leaves you. The arithmetic is easy; collecting the inputs is not.
The lessons say: How many sales to stop losing money

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Channels
Session 2
Shop, web, word of mouth. Getting known and getting bought are separate, and both sit here.
The lessons say: How it gets known and delivered
What the original says · The original describes how a company communicates with and reaches its customer segments to deliver a value proposition.
Net profit
Session 1 · Session 8
After tax. If a dividend is paid, it comes from here.
The lessons say: What is left at the bottom
Extraordinary loss
Session 8
Closing a plant, writing down an asset. Not yearly, so it is read apart from the core business.
The lessons say: A one-off, large loss
Board of directors
Session 12 · Session 13
What to build, what to charge, whom to hire. Being a shareholder and being a director are different things.
The lessons say: Where the running of the company is decided

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Japan Finance Corporation
Session 10 · Session 11
Set up to lend where private banks will not. It runs startup schemes and publishes the survey used in Sessions 10 and 11.
The lessons say: The government-owned lender
The floor and the ceiling
Session 7
Below the floor you lose money; above the ceiling nobody buys. If the floor is above the ceiling, price is not the problem.

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Key Partners
Session 2 · Session 10
UNIQLO owns no factories and is still a clothing maker. Being able to name partners is the point.
The lessons say: Who helps
What the original says · The original describes the network of suppliers and partners that make the business model work.
Dividend
Session 11 · Session 12
Not automatic. Early companies rarely pay; investors are usually after the value of the stake instead.
The lessons say: Sharing profit with shareholders
Fast, likely, slow
Session 10 · Session 11
Not one number but a range. The slow case is the useful one — and it needs named causes, not a blanket multiplier.
Business Model Canvas
Session 2 · Session 13 · Session 14
A one-page layout of nine blocks. Fitting a business on one sheet makes the blanks visible.
The lessons say: Nine blocks on one sheet
What the original says · From Osterwalder and Pigneur (2010). The original has nine blocks; the five groups used in this course are not part of it.
Pitch
Session 13 · Session 14
Seven slides, seven minutes. The limit forces the choice of what matters most.
The lessons say: A short case, put to a decision
Denominator
Session 5 · Session 8 · Session 9 · Session 12
Twenty percent of page views is not twenty percent of people who heard of you. Check what it is out of.
The lessons say: What the percentage is out of
Persona
Session 2 · Session 3
Not just age and job, but the day and the moment of difficulty. It decides who you go and ask.
The lessons say: One named buyer, written out
What the original says · From Alan Cooper. It comes from a different lineage than the canvas — do not merge the two.
Variable costs
Session 8 · Session 10
Materials, stock, per-sale fees. Revenue less variable cost is what one sale leaves you.
The lessons say: Costs that arrive with each sale

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Limited liability
Session 11 · Session 12
Shareholders are not liable beyond their investment — unless the founder personally guaranteed a loan.
The lessons say: You lose only what you put in
Loan
Session 11
You keep the company. You repay on the date whether or not you are profitable.
The lessons say: Borrow, and pay back

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Licensing
Session 1
You do not make the product. Another company uses your character and pays a fee on what it sells.
The lessons say: Lending a character for a fee
Key Resources
Session 2 · Session 10
Place, tools, money, people. Before you start, this is mostly blank — and that is fine.
The lessons say: What you have
What the original says · The original describes the most important assets required to make a business model work.
Consolidated / parent-only
Session 8
The same company in the same year looks different depending on whether subsidiaries are counted.
The lessons say: The group, or the company alone

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KPI
Session 9
Not any measurable number: one you can move, and moving it changes the outcome.
The lessons say: The number you watch
KPI tree
Session 9 · Session 14
Not a list of metrics: revenue broken into multiplied branches, so leverage is visible.
The lessons say: Revenue split into a tree
TAM / SAM / SOM
Session 4 · Session 14
Three nested sizes: the whole market, what you can reach, and what you can take in year one.
The lessons say: Whole market, reachable, year one