By Fernando Vivanco
Chief Communications Officer, Marelli
Every Christmas, I think about a friend from my childhood.
I was 11 years old living in Guatemala. On Christmas morning, after opening gifts, my father and I went for a walk around our neighborhood and ran into one of my best friends. He greeted us with the biggest smile and wished us a Merry Christmas.
His happiness that morning struck me as odd at the time. I knew how poor he was. He and his mother lived in a one-room structure made of cardboard, with a corrugated sheet of metal for a roof, on an empty corner lot. I remember being inside his cardboard house on several occasions and seeing his mother sweep the dirt floor as if it were tile.
He didn’t have a Christmas tree. He didn’t wake up to wrapped gifts. And yet, that Christmas morning he was beaming with genuine joy. For him, Christmas clearly had a higher meaning.
That moment has stayed with me.
While I have not seen him since my childhood, I think of him every Christmas. That experience has contributed to how I understand purpose and work because it echoes many of the values I was raised with.
My parents, both immigrants, worked incredibly hard to provide the basics for our family. What they gave us most wasn’t material. It was work ethic and a belief that life should be grounded in purpose, guided by faith and that success is more than just about ourselves.
My sisters and I learned early that if we wanted something, we had to work for it. I remember pulling weeds for a dollar an hour, collecting aluminum cans at the beach for spending money and selling fruit from neighborhood trees. None of it felt extraordinary at the time.
Those lessons have stayed with me throughout my career.
In many of my corporate communications roles, I haven’t always had large budgets or ideal conditions. But I’ve learned that constraints can sharpen creativity, resourcefulness and scrappiness. I’ve also learned that not all value is visible. Some of the most important contributions in organizations don’t show up neatly in dashboards or job titles. Over time, I’ve tried to lead and communicate in ways that respect people whose impact isn’t always obvious, because dignity and respect are not perks of seniority. They are leadership practices.
Most of all, that Christmas morning taught me that purpose outlasts circumstance. When people understand why their work matters, when it connects to something bigger than themselves, they are more resilient and more committed in how they show up. I’ve seen how purpose sustains people when resources are scarce, change is constant and pressure is high.
As communications leaders, we often focus on strategies and outcomes. Those matter, but culture is often shaped in quieter ways. In how we listen, who we notice and how we treat people when no one is watching.
Every year, I return to that childhood memory. It keeps me grounded in gratitude for what I have, mindful that there are many who do not share the same material blessings. And it reminds me that leadership is defined by the meaning we create, the respect we show others and the impact we leave behind.