SECTION
6
Case Teaching Notes
for Chapters 1-32
Mystic Monk Coee
Overview
This 24-page case requires that students consider the future direction of a monastery located in Clark,
Wyoming and evaluate the vision, strategy, and business model of the fledgling Mystic Monk coffee
business. As the case unfolds, students will learn of Father Daniel Mary’s vision to build a new Mount
Carmel in the Rocky Mountains and transform the small brotherhood of 13 monks living in a small home used
as makeshift rectory into a 500- acre monastery that would include accommodations for 30 monks, a Gothic
church, a convent for Carmelite nuns, a retreat center for lay visitors, 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.
Suggestions for Using the Case
This case was written as a leadoff case and was carefully crafted by the case author to require students to draw
upon most all of the concepts discussed in Chapters 1 and 2 to sufficiently prepare for a class discussion of the
case. The case involves issues relating to mission, vision, objectives, strategy, business models, and decisive
strategic leadership; the need for an action plan is obvious—these are the very things one looks for in a good
leadoff case. And the nature of the case virtually guarantees the stimulating kind of class discussion one needs to
get the course off on the right foot.
case 1 teaching note
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The assignment questions and teaching outline presented in upcoming sections of this TN reflect our thinking
about how to conduct the class discussion of the Mystic Monk Coffee case.
It is really very difficult to have an insightful and constructive class discussion of the Mystic Monk Coffee case
To facilitate your use of study questions and making them available to students, we have posted a file of the
Assignment Questions contained in this teaching note for the Mystic Monk Coffee case in the instructor
resources section of the Connect Library. (We should also point out that there is a set of study questions posted
in the student section of the OLC for each of the 32 cases included in the 22nd Edition.)
Auto-Graded Connect Case Exercise. The 21st Edition includes a fully auto-graded Connect case exercise
for 14 cases included in the text. The auto-graded exercises closely follow the assignment questions and analysis
included in the teaching note for the case. The auto-graded exercise for the Mystic Monk Coffee case requires
that students answer a series of multiple choice questions related to Assignment Questions 1-5. Question 6 is
left as an open ended question that allows students to fully discuss recommendations concerning improvements
to the company’s coffee operations, changes in its long-term direction, objectives, strategy, or approach to
strategy execution.
Students should be expected to spend about 45 minutes to complete the exercise, assuming they have done
The length of the case makes it ideal for an in-class written case or a final exam case. Our suggested written
assignment questions are as follows:
1. As a new business school graduate who has relocated to Cody, Wyoming and supports the local foundation
to benefit the Wyoming Carmelites, you have been asked to prepare a strategic review and action plan
2. Cody, Wyoming business owners have noted your quickly developing skills of analysis and growing
business acumen and have asked that you prepare a report for Father Daniel Mary that evaluates Mystic
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Assignment Questions
1. Has Father Daniel Mary established a future direction for the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming? What is his
vision for the monastery? What is his vision for Mystic Monk Coffee? What is the mission of the Carmelite
Monks of Wyoming?
2. Does it appear that Father Daniel Mary has set definite objectives and performance targets for achieving his
vision?
3. What is Father Prior’s strategy for achieving his vision? What competitive advantage might Mystic Monk
Coffee’s strategy produce?
Teaching Outline and Analysis
1. Has Father Daniel Mary established a future direction for the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming?
What is his vision for the monastery? What is his vision for Mystic Monk Coee? What is the
mission of the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming?
Students should have little trouble recognizing that Father Daniel Mary’s vision for the Carmelite Monks of
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2. Does it appear that Father Daniel Mary has set definite objectives and performance targets
for achieving his vision?
3. What is Father Prior’s strategy for achieving his vision? What competitive advantage might
Mystic Monk Coee’s strategy produce?
Students will generally agree that Father Daniel Mary is relying on charitable contributions to the monastery
and profits from its Mystic Monk Coffee enterprise to fund the purchase of the Irma Lake Ranch. Students
n Exclusive use of high quality fair trade Arabica and fair trade organic Arabic beans
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4. Is Mystic Monk Coee’s strategy a money-maker? What is MMC’s business model? What is
your assessment of Mystic Monk Coee’s customer value proposition? its profit formula? its
resources that enable it to create and deliver value to customers?
Even though MMC’s business model has a compelling customer value proposition, there is reason for
students to challenge the overall soundness of the business model. MMC’s attractive differentiating features
and competitive pricing create a strong customer value proposition, but its profit formula is suspect. Other
5. Does the strategy qualify as a winning strategy? Why or why not?
There’s merit in directing students to the three tests of a winning strategy presented on page 9 of Chapter 1
of the text if you’ve chosen to schedule Mystic Monk Coffee as the lead-off case for the course. Assessments
made by students may include the following arguments and comments:
n Does the strategy fit the company’s situation? You should find the class more or less evenly divided
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n Has the strategy yielded a sustainable competitive advantage? There should be little disagreement that
the strategy has the potential to yield sustainable competitive advantage, although it’s debatable if such
n Has the strategy produced good financial performance? Students’ assessment of MMC’s ability to
pass the third test of a winning strategy depends heavily upon their perceptions of “excellent company
6. What recommendations would you make to Father Daniel Mary in terms of crafting and
executing strategy for the monastery’s coee operations? Are changes needed in its long-
term direction? its objectives? its strategy? its approach to strategy execution? Explain.
Student recommendations are likely to fall into two groups, with one group suggesting that the vision be
scaled back dramatically and the other group recommending an action plan to dramatically increase MMC’s
revenues and earnings.
Students arguing that Father Daniel Mary’s vision should be scaled back drastically will be able to support
such a recommendation with several facts from their analysis:
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Students arguing that Father Daniel Mary should stick with his current vision must make a number of
recommendations for improving Mystic Monk Coffee’s strategy and business model. Appropriate
recommendations include:
nBefore making specific recommendations to revise MMC’s strategy and business model, students must
first determine to what extent donations can be relied upon to generate funds necessary to purchase
the Irma Lake Ranch. In our calculations, we’ve assumed that one-half of the funds necessary to
purchase the ranch will come from charitable contributions.
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nStudents should also recommend strategies that will allow MMC to increase sales to support higher
levels of production. Possible recommendations include:
• Send e-mails to Catholic churches in the U.S. asking that MMC coffee be used for church events
and that parish members be told of MMC’s Internet coffee sales.
nSome students may recommend that MMC change its business model because of its resource limitations
discussed in Assignment Question 4. Father Daniel Mary could adopt a business model that would
Epilogue
Mystic Monk Coffee has added several new blends and coffee accessories at its Web site since the close of the
case. You can visit www.mysticmonkcoffee.com to see the monastery’s latest coffee offerings.