“Greenfield” development.
How much new plant and equipment should the company build, what type, where, and what size?

Derivative valuation.
Should the company hedge its assets with derivative securities in commodity markets? How much are derivatives truly worth and what quantities of which particular derivative securities should it buy?

Trading and marketing.
Should the company participate in forward and futures markets either in concert with its physical assets or in the absence of such assets as a purely speculative play?

Mergers and acquisitions.
How much are other companies worth in the sense of marking every one of their assets to market and totaling them? How much is one’s own company worth?

Asset acquisition and/or divestiture.
What assets (plants and equipment) should a company buy or sell and what is the maximum amount it should be willing to pay or ask for them?

Financing.
How do companies convince banks and I-banks to provide capital to them?

Asset rehabilitation.
Should a company pay to refurbish its aging plants or should it simply shut them down and build new ones?

Inventory.
How much inventory should a company carry and how should it dispatch that inventory? Should a company hold inventory upstream or downstream in its production chain? Where are the critical uncertainties the company is striving to mitigate with optimum physical inventory management?

Operations.
How should a company operate its assets? Should it “chase price” by varying its production volumes over time, or should it operate continuously, inventorying excess production?

Investor relations.
How does a company convince its investors what it and its assets are truly worth presently and into the future?

Yield management and price differentiation.
How does the company segment its market and charge premium prices to some segments and “normal” or discount prices to other?

Diversification.
Should the company diversify into other commodity-based businesses? Is the grass greener in some other business?