The shareholder from Berlin was successful with his letter: shareholders and partners became extremely worried. Hundreds of them contacted the company headquarters in Baar, both by letter and by phone.
By now PB&C was already working intensively on a defense strategy. This contained a whole range of internal and external communications measures targeted at various audiences (general public, shareholders, staff at Hapimag headquarters and at their 60 plus resorts). Structurally, the strategy was not static but process oriented. This allowed the communications task force - made up of members of the board of directors, the management team and PB&C consultants - to analyse developments on a daily basis, to let new information flow in to strategy development and to develop effective counter measures.
The results of the work could be seen at the annual general meeting. The existing board of directors was re-elected with a huge majority and the attempted take-over clearly turned down. This in part due to the open and transparent information and communications policy.
