Coffee by Mystic Monks

Coffee by MM

Cora Anderson

Belhaven University

Coffee by MM

        In 2014, Thompson, Strickland, & Gamble noted that “near the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming, there were 13 Carmelite monks living in a small house serving as a makeshift rectory in Clark.  These monks live a Cloistered religious life and are dedicated to a life of prayer, silence and worship.  They also followed vows of prayer, silence, worship, obedience, chastity, and poverty.  Father Daniel Mary, a prior of the monks, had dreams for much more. He had a vision of a 500-acre monastery with rooms for 30 monks, a Gothic church, a retreat center for lay visitors, a convent for Carmelite nuns, and a hermitage.  Father Daniel Mary had identified a nearby ranch for sale that met the requirements of his vision perfectly, but its listing price of $8.9 million presented a financial obstacle to creating a place of prayer, worship and solitude in the Rockies.  Father Daniel Mary hoped to fund the purchase of the ranch through charitable contributions to the monastery and through the profits of its Mystic Monk coffee business, which had earned nearly $75,000 during its first year of operation” (p. 368).

        According to Anderson, (2018), “the MMC case draws upon most of all the concepts in chapter 1 and 2 of our textbook.  The case involves issues relating to mission, vision, objectives, strategy, business models, and decisive strategic leadership; the need for an action plan is obvious.  It highlights Father Daniel Mary’s strategic vision for the monastery and its coffee operations and their strategy and business model. They produced using high-quality fair trade organic Arabica beans from Seattle and distributed under the name of Mystic Monk Coffee.  The company is also referred to as MMC.  Promotions were done through word of mouth by their many loyal customers.  Advertisements were done via MMC Affiliate Program and the ShareASale, expansion, and product line extension” (p. 1).        

        According to Mystic Monk Coffee (2018), “the overall mission approach of Mystic Monk Coffee is to increase its operation.  To improve its services, they have to invest in a new and larger roaster that could produce more coffee.  By doing this, this would expand the quality of customers by connecting to more Catholic churches and corporate sponsors.  They have a wide variety of coffee flavors, blends, and roasts that seems to satisfy the different tastes and preferences of the target market.  The collective idea was that the cash flow from the sale of the coffee should provide enough money to finance the cost of the new ranch” (p. 1).