What is the purpose of a hedge?

Although a company would never dispel gains from currency fluctuations, they truly hate accounting for the losses. This is why minimizing risk is so important. It is absolutely necessary to retain a firm’s profits from selling a product or providing a service. Please consider the following questions:

What is the purpose of a hedge?
How does a hedge operate?
Provide an example of three hedging strategies.
Of the three, which do you prefer?