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Strategy covers business strategy, law, and accounting. It centers on memorizing katakana, meaning loanword terminology.

In business strategy frameworks, SWOT analysis is a two by two matrix of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. PPM classifies businesses into “Star,” “Cash Cow,” “Problem Child,” and “Dog” by market growth rate and market share. The 3C framework is Customer, Competitor, and Company. The 5 Forces include rivalry within the industry, new entrants, substitutes, buyers, and suppliers. The value chain looks for the sources of added value across primary activities plus support activities. When you consider how these analyses relate, 3C and the 5 Forces are external analysis, SWOT covers both internal and external analysis, and the value chain is internal analysis.

For marketing and intellectual property, the 4P framework viewed from the seller is Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. The 4C framework viewed from the buyer is Customer Value, Cost, Convenience, and Communication. STP is Segmentation, then Targeting, then Positioning.

In law, different acts protect different kinds of things. Under the Copyright Act, it protects programs and works in general, following the no-formality principle. Under the Patent Act, it protects inventions that use the laws of nature, with a term of twenty years. Under the Design Act, it protects the design of an article for twenty-five years. Under the Trademark Act, it protects marks for goods and services, which are semi-permanent through renewal. The Unfair Competition Prevention Act protects trade secrets, requiring secrecy management, usefulness, and non-public nature. A contrast that appears frequently is that software falls under the Copyright Act, while business-model patents fall under the Patent Act.

For contracts and accounting, a contract for work, also called ukeoi, involves promises of completion, with command authority on the contractor side. There is also quasi-mandate, called jun-inin, where there is no obligation to complete, such as in SES. Worker dispatch, called haken, means the client directs the work. For accounting relationships, operating profit equals gross profit minus SG&A expenses. ROE equals net income divided by shareholders’ equity. The current ratio equals current assets divided by current liabilities, and a current ratio of two hundred percent or above is considered healthy.