Great Combinations

Lately I’ve been thinking about how combining things that have nothing to do with one another can produce amazing results.

I call it the Reese’s peanut butter and chocolate effect (“You got chocolate on my peanut butter. No you got peanut butter on my chocolate!”). If you can make the right combination work together, you can create brilliance.

My iPhone got me thinking. Is it a computer with a phone, or a phone with a computer (or is it an iPod with both)? It’s not just that; it’s a smart combination. Others have tried (and Dell is about to try) and failed. It’s that Apple combined both superbly to make it work easily with unexpected benefits (iPhone apps).

What are other examples? One that comes to mind is the Airbus, or JetBlue as we here in the US experience it. Putting a TV in front of an airplane seat makes me smack my forehead and say, “Why didn’t I think of that?” What a perfect combination. Those flights always go by so fast, and it’s not because of air speed. And let’s not even start talking about the benefits of traveling on an Airbus with kids.

A steamier combination might be strip joint + MacDonald’s = Hooters. Maybe not exactly, but close enough.

Help me out here. What are other combinations that have turned two disparate things into genius?

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