• Business Week, Thursday, January 24, 2008 1:30 PM

A.G. Lafley, president and CEO of Procter & Gamble, has used his experiences to deepen his mastery and to nurture his originality, writes Roger Martin in his new book, "The Opposable Mind: How Successful Leaders Win Through Integrative Thinking."

Lafley deepens his understanding of consumers by repeatedly listening to their needs and wants, taking responsive action, and measuring the results against expectations to hone his understanding. His mastery was essential during an internal battle in 1984, when he saw good reason for breaking precedent in the naming of the new liquid version of Tide laundry detergent.

The issue, Lafley says, was that the consumer saw the detergent as the same old reliable Tide in a convenient new form. Lafley's argument to extend the Tide name prevailed and within 20 years, the U.S. market for liquid detergent was more than three times the size of powdered detergent, and liquid and powdered Tide had claimed more than four times the share of the next biggest brand.

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