Read the following case very carefully and solve it. It is highly recommended that you read it through at least twice to make sure you understand it.

CASE: Due to your excellent performance and prestigious academic preparation, you have recently been appointed Finance Director of the company "GLOBAL ENERGY MONOPOLIUM WORLDWIDE", which is dedicated to the generation, transmission and distribution of electric power and natural gas. It has fields and plants in several countries around the world and was able to establish a subsidiary in Mexico last six years, due to the energy reforms that already accept private and foreign investment. The corporate office is in Houston, TX, USA.

The worldwide finance department has four main areas of responsibility:

The first, Operating Planning and Budgeting. This area plans and defines the budgets necessary for the company's day-to-day operations, i.e. programmed operating expenses.

This area receives, from the regional plant managers and administrative managers, the estimated plans of programmed expenses for monthly operations, for a period of one year.

The second, Capital Investment Projects, which means: Exploration of new gas fields; drilling of new wells; construction, expansion and modernization of industrial plants such as: thermoelectric plants, hydroelectric plants, substations, wind farms, transmission and distribution lines, gas pipelines and compressor stations, etc.

This area receives, from the engineering areas, the cash flow estimates of all projects, for their evaluation; and you (the finance department in charge) must approve, return for review or reject the projects.

The third, Financial Optimization. In which financial operations are planned and executed to take advantage of surplus resources ($$) not used in any of the other areas.

The fourth, Strategic Support. This area works in close coordination with the corporate strategic risk management area. It proposes and implements operations aimed at mitigating financial risks.

From experience it is known that the board of directors (shareholder representatives) is conservative when it comes to risk. They are mainly concerned about: Fluctuations in the international price of gas; variations in foreign exchange rates; incidents or accidents due to the natural risk inherent in energy operations.

Your first responsibility (what you have to answer in this problem) is to present to the board of directors and shareholders, what will be your strategy and conceptual plan so that each of these four areas under your responsibility will fulfill their function efficiently and reliably. In other words, what will you do with the information you will receive; what techniques will you apply to evaluate and issue your results; and what actions will you take in each of the four areas.