In the investment world, commodities are typically pretty boring. From livestock to grains to steel and other metals, commodities have their ups and downs. But long term, the world will always need them. Even if demand goes down, it tends to return as markets correct themselves. Take the lumber industry, for example. When the housing market crashed in 2007, demand for lumber plummeted. For Weyerhaeuser Company, the largest producer of lumber in the United States and third largest in the world, the dramatic dive in demand for its primary products resulted in a 50 percent drop in revenues over a two-year period from 2007 and 2009. But the market slowly corrected, and over the following decade, things returned to business as usual for Weyerhaeuser.

Small group exercise: Looking forward beyond the recent disruptions, advise Weyerhaeuser's top management on specific changes it should make to its value creation and delivery network to lessen the impact of any similar future crises.