The modern business world is constantly evolving, changing the way we work and our priorities. CEOs face many challenges, from the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) to the ongoing debate between remote work, returning to the office and managing brand reputation. A company can thrive in one moment and just as quickly find itself in trouble again. While continuous adaptation and innovation are essential, most importantly, a company must not forget what made it successful in the first place or it will lose its bearings.

Boeing is a prime example of a company that has seemingly lost its way, having faced significant challenges in recent years (and currently with the difficulties of the Starliner program). On August 8, Kelly Ortberg was officially named the new CEO to get the company back on track. However, former Medtronic CEO Bill George told Yahoo Finance, “It might take Ortberg 10 years to get Boeing back on track.” Over the past five years, Boeing stock has fallen 50%, compared to a 95% rise in the S&P 500. While your company may not be the size of Boeing, there are valuable lessons to be learned from its situation. Boeing must do the same thing that business leaders can do to reinvigorate their teams and restore their company’s brand reputation.

Focus on the One

In both personal and professional contexts, it’s easy to fall into the trap of believing that more is better. However, this mentality and approach often dilutes your efforts, overwhelms you, and causes you to lose sight of what’s important and ultimately fail to achieve your goals. Whether you’re looking to improve your wellbeing or increase your company’s revenue, keeping your sights on what’s important is crucial. As Bill George pointed out, “You can accomplish a lot in five months or years, but you have to change the culture back to aviation.”

As your business grows, it’s important to keep returning to the core focuses and actions that made your company successful in the first place. It may seem counterintuitive, but less is often more. Let’s say you want to improve the performance and well-being of your employees. In this case, it’s better to forego the superficial perks that only scratch the surface and instead focus on the one or two core factors that have the biggest impact. These will vary depending on your industry and the size and needs of your business. But just as Boeing needs to get back to focusing exclusively on aviation rather than profit, you should ask yourself: What is the one thing you could go back to that would make a big difference in a personal and organizational context?

Bring back connectivity and cohesion

One of the main arguments against remote work is the perceived loss of connection and cohesion among distributed teams. Regardless of the work environment, communication, performance and innovation suffer when there is a lack of cohesion within the company or in the people strategy. With that in mind, Ortberg’s first act in office is to course-correct a decision made decades ago by moving management from Chicago back to Seattle, on the grounds that “I can be close to the commercial aircraft programs.”

Given several high-profile incidents over the years, closing the communication and connection gaps between teams could improve company culture, safety and quality, and restore the Boeing brand reputation in the long term. Ortberg noted, “I firmly believe we need to get closer to the production lines and development programs across the country.” What gap could you close, or at least narrow, to improve the organization’s performance? Is it strengthening company culture and morale through a more targeted wellness strategy? Or is there something else that could make a powerful difference?

Boeing won’t recover from years of setbacks instantly, and changing company culture and performance won’t happen overnight either. However, with a careful, focused and precise strategy that gets to the root of problems while building up your people, you can see a positive change in your company’s performance, image and reputation.