Imagine you're the CFO of a company with 10 product lines and an infrastructure that includes several functional departments which support some or all of these product lines. The CEO is curious as to what effect dropping one of the product lines or increasing investment in certain product lines might have on company profits.

Based specifically on what we've been reading about in recent weeks, what information should the CFO be gathering and key metrics calculated to help the CEO make such decisions? What are "fixed" expenses, are they truly "fixed" and how should they be considered when making such decisions?"