Imagine you’re in a foreign country and you need to buy shampoo. You speak the language, but you’re not familiar with the brands. How do you choose?Focusing on that moment, says Roger Martin, dean of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, was the big pivot that rescued Proctor and Gamble’s business from the torpor of a “reliability focus” that was hampering the company’s growth. It was a question of empathy––of better understanding the customer’s feelings and motivations.In a now-famous meeting, A.G. Lafley, P&G’s executive chairman, pointed out that there are “two moments of truth”. The first is when the customer decides to buy your product. The second is when she uses it. P&G had built its reputation up to that point on the second moment––on delivering a reliable product. But reliability is moot if the customer never buys the product in the first place. The first and second moments of truth are interdependent, not mutually exclusive.In order to break out of old mode...