When the terrorist attacks began on the morning of Sept. 11, I had an anxious thought. My older son works at Morgan Stanley (www.msdw.com), which had 50 floors in the World Trade Center, and I knew he was flying to New York that morning. About half an hour later, he called to say he was fine. But almost immediately, my cellphone rang again. The John Hancock Center in Chicago, where we have our headquarters, was being evacuated because it was deemed to be a possible target.

My feelings from Sept. 11 remain vivid to me. I think of my brief personal fears and modest inconvenience and try to imagine the devastating effect the terrorist attacks had on the victims and their families and friends.

As I fume, though, I keep hearing Secretary of State Colin Powell, who said recently: “We’ve got to get back to work. We’ve got to get back to our ballgames. We’ve got to get back to our theaters. We’ve got to get this economy moving again. And that will be the best answer to what happened.”

How do we do that? How do we get the economy really moving again? Clearly, “business as usual” isn’t possible. Chief executives and their boards need to adjust their plans for the new economic context, which may be gloomy for some time. But in working with clients and corresponding with dozens of other senior executives, I think we can all help our companies get moving in the right direction again by focusing on five things:

 LEADERSHIP. Based on news accounts, executives are stepping up. But we can’t stop now. The company is a central source of community for employees, so we have to help them continue to heal even as we ask them to return their focus to work.

 PREVENTING OR COVERCOMING DISRUPTION. As several people said in e-mails, we need to revisit our emergency plans and think about more than data backups and computer systems disaster recovery. People posed questions such as: How do you run your business when the building is blown up, when you lose a lot of people, and when your supply networks are literally destroyed?

Many executives said they’re taking a new look at their use of wireless, which proved more resilient than fixed-line communications systems following the terrorist attacks. Rick Ellenberger, the CEO of telecommunications provider Broadwing Inc. (www.broadwing.com), said many companies have also started to look into other ways of making sure their networks can survive a catastrophe, such as building more redundancy into their telecommunications setups.

To minimize travel, others said they are turning to videoconferencing, teleconferencing, and software that helps workers collaborate. I agree that it’s time to really explore how the Internet can serve as a foundation to let us operate effectively even with people dispersed. I would caution that technology can change the dynamics of people’s interactions, so we need to think about all the implications before doing something dramatic.

 COST STRUCTURE. Companies need to get their costs in line with weakened customer demand. Many have already taken the easy steps to cost-cutting, by eliminating capacity and jobs. What’s needed now is the second round of restructuring, requiring deeper and more surgical changes.

Even though I firmly believe in information technology, I recognize many cuts will happen there. Companies should look at every large systems project and ask: Is this project on track? Will it really yield the value promised given the new environment? Is it still relevant?

Our experience is that cost-cutting done with good design can, among other things, provide a unified view of the customer and establish a platform for more efficient product development. The chief information officer at a large pharmaceutical company told me earlier this year, “If I have to build another one-off CRM system at this company, I’ll go crazy!” In the name of cost-cutting, she will now probably be able to do what she has wanted all along: combine the initiatives to create a platform of coordinated data and applications.

Companies will also want to do more than just stop writing checks. Companies need to invest to share information better with suppliers, distributors, and customers to create efficiencies across the supply chain.

 CORE CUSTOMERS. Companies need to focus on how to hold on to customers even as some slow their spending and as many competitors discount heavily.

Executives need to enhance their ability to see how customers are behaving and to spot problems before customers defect to competitors. This is more important than ever because customers’ behavior is so volatile. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (www.walmart.com), for instance, reports that, in the first few days after the attacks, customers bought American flags, guns, basic foodstuffs, television sets, and not much else. Wal-Mart used its world-class information systems to sense customer demand and responded swiftly—for instance, asking manufacturers to expedite production of more American flags.

Even if you don’t have Wal-Mart’s technology budget, it’s still possible to do data-driven tests that probe how customers will react. For instance, before the terrorist attacks, we helped a bank do some analysis and testing to determine when customers might be getting ready to defect to competitors. We found some rather simple, easily measured indicators. For instance, when customers went from doing business with the bank online to doing the business offline, the change indicated dissatisfaction, and a high percentage took their business elsewhere. Armed with the data, the bank put in place a program to contact at-risk customers, figure out what was making them unhappy, and solve the problem before it was too late.

This sort of analysis can usually be done by tinkering with a company’s computer systems, rather than requiring the sort of overhaul that happens when a full customer relationship management system is installed.

 THE UPTURN-WHICH ALWAYS COMES. To prepare, you must continue to invest in a portfolio of inexpensive business options to explore the potential of new products and distribution channels. Intel Corp. (www.intel.com), for example, keeps investing in developing next-generation chip technology. It knows that, when the rebound comes, gains will be made from new products, not old ones.

If you can accomplish this agenda, you should be in good shape. And the economy will be, too. We will be able to enjoy our prosperity, exercise our precious freedoms, and live the values that make this country great, while Osama bin Laden’s followers brood in dank caves in Afghanistan, with only their hatred to keep them warm.

Bergstein is chairman and chief executive of DiamondCluster International Inc., a business strategy and technology solutions firm. He can be reached at mel.e.bergstein@diamondcluster.com.