The EcoSphere and “Original Ecosphere” are trademark names for sealed blown-glass miniature aquaria produced by Ecosphere Associates, Inc., of Tucson, Arizona, United States. The Original EcoSphere is the world’s first totally enclosed ecosystem – a complete, self-contained and self-sustaining miniature world encased in glass. You can purchase one and read the full description EcoSphere Closed Aquatic Ecosystem, Small Sphere.
Later in the description, they talk about the history of the EcoSphere:
The EcoSphere is the result of technology developed by two scientists, the late Dr. Joe Hansen and the late Dr. Clair Folsome at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. NASA was researching self-contained communities for space explorers to live in during long-term space flights. Out of this research came the EcoSphere. NASA had two programs that benefited from the discovery: Mission to Planet Earth, aimed at studying Earth’s environment, and the Space Program. If NASA could figure out how to sustain life in a closed environment, perhaps they could build space stations that would help in exploring our solar system… and perhaps one day, help us live somewhere other than Earth.
The EcoSphere is a tiny working model of the Earth. The algae survives by converting the carbon dioxide and light into useable oxygen which the shrimp will then breathe. The shrimp can also eat their own shed exoskeletons. Nothing in the EcoSphere goes to waste. Thus the EcoSphere is a perfect model of a balanced ecosystem where all inhabitants provide for each other to sustain a living environment.
What this product reminds me of is the sales and marketing systems that many of us try to develop. One of my past rants, Value Stream Mapping should be left on the Shop Floor. We try to make a perfect model that is going to be highly effective and efficient. However, there is a problem with most perfect systems as mentioned on the Amazon page:
The average life of an EcoSphere is between 2 and 3 years. Reproduction of shrimp does occur in some EcoSpheres, but this is uncommon. The shrimp that are in the EcoSphere have purposely been chosen because they do not exhibit aggressive behavior towards each other. The algae and bacteria in the EcoSphere continuously reproduce. In fact, as time goes by, you can expect changes in the algae population in your EcoSphere.
This means that you have limited use of your existing marketing systems. The shrimp (customers will die off) and the alga and bacteria consumes the waste without any production reoccurring. This again reminds me of the lifetime of most sales and marketing systems, they are in a constant state of renewal and change. What worked yesterday does not insure it will work tomorrow. The goal is not to create effective and efficient marketing systems, Why 50% of your marketing should fail. The goal is to build a system that will reproduce customers.
I am thinking of handing out EcoSpheres for my clients Christmas presents this year. My only reservation is that I may be the renewal part of the system.