The Fire Roasted Coffee Company (Fire Roasted) was a small regional roaster and seller of coffee in London, Ontario. The company sourced green coffee beans from over 20 different countries and managed the roasting process in house. Its coffee was primarily served at Fire Roasted’s own coffee shop locations, but was sometimes sold wholesale to other cafés and interested parties. In 2017, as the company was about to update its point-of-sale system, the company’s founder and president recognized the opportunity to implement a new set of prices for the premium coffee beverages on the menu. The list of beverages included Americano, cappuccino, drip coffee, latte, macchiato, and mocha. He considered a few different methods of costing selected items, intending to use these costs as an aid to his pricing decisions. He was also determined to incorporate industry and competitive dynamics into the decision.
In late 2015, the chief executive officer of Shaw Communications was considering whether to reduce or divest the company’s media assets. Shaw Communications had been founded as a cable television provider and, over the years, had grown its consumer connectivity businesses to include Internet services, satellite television, landline telephony, and, most recently, cellular network services. Similar to most other major Canadian telecommunications companies, Shaw Communications had acquired media assets, including the Global Television Network and specialty channels such as History and Treehouse. Selling all or, some, of these media assets would strengthen the company’s balance sheet and help finance the expansion of its cellular network. The company’s chief executive officer needed decide how important media assets were to the company’s core strategy.