What is hedging and how could it be used as a risk management function in a publicly traded company

For the assignment this week, tell me why Communication and Risk Management would be important to understand as an executive of a publicly traded company. I want you to SPECIFICALLY ADDRESS HEDGING in this assignment. What is hedging and how could it be used as a risk management function in a publicly traded company. (Make sure that you look at rubric and follow the rubric and see the comments below). This assignment will be used as a DRAFT that will be used in your final project. Keep in mind that, in this small paper, you will generally talk about why these things are important to understand in a publicly traded company.