By now every corporate board should realize that activist campaigns are on the rise and that no company is immune from public, and often messy, public fights with hedge funds, but that doesn’t mean they know how they will respond if activists come knocking. Strong inflows to activist hedge funds and more cooperation with other investors means that market cap is no longer a defense, and while the strategy is still most popular in the US it is quickly spreading to the UK, and starting to pick up in Germany and Japan. “The best defense is a well-articulated strategy and…