Video: In this sneak peek from his new book, Good Products, Bad Products, legendary author, quality innovation expert and former Stanford Dean James L. Adams shares his thoughts on what makes a product truly "good," and why we put up with so many bad products today. To learn more about Good Products, Bad Products, visit http://bit.ly/wVkj3n. Enjoy the video and book, and as Jim says: "Go out there and do some good!"

Book: In Good Products, Bad Products, James L. Adams, a top figure in the field of business innovation, argues that competing on cost in today’s global market is a failing strategy. The only way to take back the competitive advantage, he argues, is to compete on quality.

Good Products, Bad Products is filled with insights and exercises to meet this timely need and global competitive concern. Improving product quality, Adams contends, is a universal win—to producers, users, individuals, groups, organizations, nations, the human race, and the ecosphere; higher-quality products means higher-quality competitiveness, which means higher quality of life for everyone.

Adams teaches anyone who has a stake in product development—from executives and managers to engineers and product designers—the insight and methods they need to improve quality in order to compete with foreign competitors, such as Japan, South Korea, and China, all of which are creating higher-quality products by the day. It describes the best new technologies and marketing tools and explains how to use them to gain the competitive advantage.

James L. Adams, Ph.D. (Palo Alto, CA), is an emeritus professor at StanfordUniversity, affiliated with the departments of mechanical engineering, management science, the program in science, technology, and society. His expertise covers mechanical engineering, product design, creativity and innovation, and organizational behavior. Adams is the author of Conceptual Blockbusting, Flying Buttresses, Entropy, and O-Rings, and The Care and Feeding of Ideas