When talking about business strategies, commentators often talk about goals, and occasionally mention objectives. These terms are, however, usually not clearly defined and very seldom is there a solid hierarchy or discernable relationship between them. In some cases they are used interchangeably. Unfortunately, the use of these terms in other fields and endeavors (like behavior and coaching) often results in understandable confusion. There are real reasons to use each of these concepts to serve specific and distinct functions in support of business strategy and you can build a stronger and more useful strategy by allowing them to satisfy different roles. Goals In my experience; a business or strategic goal should be a general statement of intent that is broad, relatively undefined but expresses the vision…