"Things you want to do in an emergency need to be done every day."

Perhaps no theme from our interviews is potentially more valuable than the concept of "enterprise," the idea that organizations, levels of government, and economic sectors are deeply interdependent and need to work together as though part of an integrated unit. Many recommendations in this vein had to do with first understanding, and then coordinating and integrating information and processes across organizational and programmatic boundaries. However, interviewees often cited barriers such as the lack of a shared vision of how integrated work flow and information can support public functions, inadequate funding, disincentives to collaborate, and distrust of the motives and abilities of other organizations. Limited funding and inflexible practices for resource distribution reinforce traditional organizational imperatives, leaving little room for enterprise thinking or cooperation. These issues are not at all limited to emergency management functions. They pervade all the functions of government.

Interviewees agreed that deep and lasting improvements in the quality, flexibility, resilience, and coordination of mainstream non-emergency programs would not only contribute to better emergency response but would dramatically improve the quality and effectiveness of all public functions. Investments in coordination and integration within public health, social services, transportation, education, and other areas would all have this dual benefit. They would prepare us to respond more effectively, rapidly, and efficiently to unexpected events, while simultaneously improving everyday mission performance for these fundamental societal needs.

Enterprise concerns do not stop with government, however. With respect to physical infrastructures, for example, the crisis showed how separate programs of public and private investment have produced an infrastructure that, for all practical purposes, has become a single complex resource whose characteristics are not well understood, but whose performance (and failure) affects every sector simultaneously. The massive failures attending the WTC terrorist attack are ample evidence of vulnerabilities that must be addressed by not only better technology and engineering, but also by more comprehensive information and strategic public and private investments. Respondents recommended that public officials, business leaders, and utility providers all participate in a re-examination of existing and future infrastructure for communications and other crucial public services.