James L Adams, the author of Conceptual Blockbusting — a best-selling guide to creativity and innovation — is a professor emeritus at Stanford University and he brings his A-game in his latest book, Good Products, Bad Products-Essential Elements to Achieving Superior Quality.
The book was born out of his notes for the graduate class at Stanford, which was so inter-disciplinary in nature that it was attended by not just engineering students, but also students from Graduate School of Business and other areas. This eclectic flavour is pervasive throughout the book, and makes it a fascinating read for engineers, designers and managers alike.
Adams says at the outset that the goal of the book is to help readers become aware of some of the aspects of overall quality that are often given inadequate attention, and this focus on quality is the mantra of the book. The author believes that if we produce things that do not serve us well, they will fail in the marketplace, and advocates that profitability and consumer happiness are strongly dependent on quality. This book is certainly not a traditional engineering book because formulae and scientific theories are often inadequate in the realm of emotional appeal, symbolism or cultural fit. Instead it deals exclusively with ‘softer’ aspects of product definition, design and development.
The book begins with a light jaunt through history, starting from Space Race to the downfall of US companies who were victims of their own success. In an increasingly global world that is undergoing a technological renaissance under the banner of Asian behemoths like Samsung, this book provides an invaluable roadmap for companies to focus beyond mere manufacturing quality and embraces ethos of innovation and entrepreneurship.
This philosophy of ‘winning through innovation’ is illustrated through Adams’s razor-sharp examples ranging from steel modules manufactured in China that comprise the new eastern span of San Francisco Bay Bridge to Tata Nano.
Adams ponders over the secret behind successful products and delves into topics such as cognitive science, craftsmanship, symbolism, and sustainability to provide clues to this mystery. And perhaps therein lies the criticism of his work, if any, which is that none of the topics are broached in sufficient depth, and each of the topics are vast enough to be further expanded to separate books of their own. Ultimately, the goal of any design is to meet the business goals and the author fails to ex post recourse when a product fails despite best laid plans, and history is replete with such examples.
The book is well-structured and each chapter ends with a Thought Problem, which actively engages the reader and urges them to analyse products around them which are often taken for granted. The insights thus obtained are quite startling and makes one appreciate the creative process at organizations such as IDEO even more. Finally, the book culminates in the Good Product, Bad Product Matrix — a seven-point assessment tool, which is an elegant and insightful approach to evaluating a product’ quality. The book is an engrossing read for those who believe in focusing on quality and offers a compelling perspective to those who don’t.
Shishir1037@iimtrichy.ac.in