Strategise method guide
Business Aims
Business Aims makes strategic intent explicit through outcomes, measures, horizons, owners and confidence.
Beginner-friendly guide · 4 min read
What Business Aims does
Business Aims makes strategic intent explicit through outcomes, measures, horizons, owners and confidence.
Business aims express the outcomes that a strategy process is intended to achieve. They provide direction and criteria for judging opportunities, gaps, capabilities and roadmap initiatives.
A useful aim describes a future outcome, who or what benefits, how progress will be measured, the horizon and who is accountable. It avoids confusing activity with achievement.
Innovation-management systems require direction, objectives and aligned action. Aims provide the target conditions against which gaps, options, capabilities and roadmap items can be assessed.[1][2]
Aims connect purpose to measures, ownership and the choices made in the toolkit.
- 1Purpose
- 2Outcome
- 3Measure
- 4Horizon
- 5Owner and decisions
Original InnovationFlow illustration. Example values and software behaviour are explained in this guide; method sources are listed below.
Understand the method
The parts in plain language
Outcome
State the change in performance, position, resilience or stakeholder value that matters. Avoid beginning with a project or tool.
Illustrative example
Reduce energy-related operating cost across priority sites, rather than “install dashboards”.
Measure and horizon
Add indicators, target conditions and a realistic time horizon. Include uncertainty when the target is directional.
Illustrative example
Reduce peak electricity demand by 15 per cent across five sites by 2029.
Ownership and alignment
Assign accountability and connect the aim to other aims, evidence and constraints. Expose tensions rather than hiding them.
Illustrative example
A cost aim may conflict with a resilience aim if both rely on the same limited capital.
When to use it
- At the start of a strategy flow or portfolio review.
- When tools are producing activity without a shared definition of success.
A practical workflow
- 1
Translate leadership intent into outcome-oriented aims.
- 2
Add measures, target values, horizons, owners and confidence.
- 3
Resolve overlap and tension between aims.
- 4
Connect later analyses and roadmap items back to the relevant aim.
Fictional worked example
Example: an industrial-service aim
This example is illustrative rather than a reported case. A leadership team turns a broad digital ambition into an assessable aim.
Observation:“Become a digital leader” has no observable outcome.
Implication:It cannot guide prioritisation or review.
Observation:Increase service value by preventing customer downtime.
Implication:The customer and business result are explicit.
Observation:Reach 30 per cent remote resolution across priority equipment by 2029.
Implication:Roadmap items can now be tested against a target.
From analysis to decision
How to interpret the result
- 1Keep the number of aims governable.
- 2Test whether every aim can distinguish a relevant choice from an irrelevant one.
- 3Link roadmap items and evidence back to the aim they serve.
Practical interpretation guidance from InnovationFlow. Refer to the method sources below for the underlying approach.
What a useful output looks like
Common pitfalls
- Avoid activity statements that do not describe an outcome.
- Do not create more aims than the organisation can meaningfully govern.
References and method basis
- [1]International Organization for Standardization (2024). Innovation management system - Requirements. ISO 56001:2024. Source ↗International standard
- [2]Phaal, R. and Muller, G. (2009). An architectural framework for roadmapping: Towards visual strategy. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 76(1), 39–49. Source ↗Peer-reviewed research
This guide synthesises the named sources into practical questions for strategy and innovation work. It does not claim that using a tool by itself produces a successful decision.