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About us

Why we exist

We want your business to thrive! Check out this section on what moves us.

Social responsibility

We all have accountability to all our stakeholders. Investing in the lives of the people who need it most.

Our Team

Check our personal biographies, how we want to address the leadership crisis of today.

Why we exist

We want your business to thrive. We do this through building a strong vision, culture and leadership. Our specialty is to empower accountability and continuous improvement in your business.

Our Mission

Teach, train and equip business leaders in the areas of leadership, building teams and turnaround

Our Vision

We want to see transformational businesses with healthy relationships, good solutions, generational and a force for good

Our Purpose

Empower transformational leaders to build healthy, influential businesses

Why is our company called LYDIA Connect?

We often receive that question. And we love to explain. See below for two historical inspirations!

The Kingdom Lydia | 650 BC | A story of organizational leadership

Traditionally, traders always had a chance to get scammed. The composition or weight of the gold or silver you got paid in, could be tampered with. Trade was time-consuming and only reserved for experts who could determine weight and composition. Thus, trading with gold or silver as a means of exchange was rare.

Around 650 BC, the very first coins are issued by the Kingdom of Lydia. Although the shape is somewhat irregular, but the weight and the composition is fixed. Coins with the Lydia mark are quickly widely accepted by retailers. Even Greece is taking over the system of retail trade and coins. Lively markets are emerging in more and more cities, which was unprecedentedly revolutionary at the time.

The Kingdom Lydia has been famous for its merchants, their leader probably foresaw how they could gain by using coins. After the issuance of coins, the principle of multiplication got a whole new meaning. The system of products traded at fixed value expressed in currencies was taken over and transferred from one trader to another. Together, traders formed a market. The market was where everyone, both buyers and sellers, knew how things were going. Classic structures fell away, there was not a ruler who dominated everything. The market was a haven for creativity and multiplication.

The Kingdom of Lydia tells a story on organisational leadership. A leader makes the difference by issuing coins. The difference you want to make with your company may sound unprecedented revolutionary. But how wonderful it would be if others would buy into your idea. Imagine, your team multiplies your idea and ignites the entire organisation!

What if your “tribe” comes together to form a haven for creativity and together exerts a positive impact on all stakeholders? Making a difference shifts the focus from earning money to truly appreciating each other and each other’s products or initiatives. Then, money will be brought back to a means of appreciating each other and creating freedom.

The woman Lydia | 50 AC | A story of personal leadership

As a trades person, the woman Lydia from Thyatira who lived around 50 AC decided to move to Philippi, a Roman colony and trade city in Macedonia. The reason for doing that was marketing; the Roman emperor had decided that only high Roman officials were allowed to wear purple. To sell the precious purple of her city Thyatira, she decided to move to Philippi, the place where she could reach her customers, the high Roman officials.

Philippi was a Roman colony on the major east-west trade route, the Egnation Highway, between Rome and Asia. Lots of tradespersons traveled behind the Roman army at the Egnation Highway and brought products into Rome and further into the Roman empire.

Lydia made a very strategic choice to settle in Philippi and soon she sold her purple to the Roman court and developed friendly relations with people from the Roman court. Besides the spatial borders she also went beyond personal constraints, attending gatherings where she met new people and was exposed to new ideas and beliefs.

We believe Lydia was a woman of exceptional leadership, intentionally delivering generational business.

We want to connect you with this kind of LYDIA leadership, healthy leadership, delivering good solutions, being a force for good and providing generational continuity.

Social responsibility

Right from the start we decided to invest in society with our business. Our work is not all about the money, it is about doing good. Investing in the lives of people, especially for those who need it most.

Doing good

Making a positive difference.

Defining the future

Setting a new compelling vision.

Connecting with the past

Not forgetting about the past, bridging the generations.

Finding your purpose

Connecting people with what they are made for, not settling for less.

South Africa | Export Readiness
In 2016-2018 we did exploratory travels to Africa for our trade business. To see how we could open up the international market for creative entrepreneurs. During those travels we understood that a lot of our training materials are quite key for local entrepreneurs. So we invested in about 60 individuals to train them in Export Readiness. Topics ranged from leadership, value proposition, trend-driven innovation to product margin calculations and international transport.
Germany | Leadership Conference
In 2019 we introduced Transformational Leadership (TL) into Germany. We hosted Ford Taylor, the founder, to do a TL-training with a group of leaders in Stuttgart. It was a great success and people were moved by the simple but very profound leadership principles of TL. We invested in this day since we believe Germany needs a new kind of leadership.
Germany | Brandenburg
The Brandenburg area in Germany is still struggling from after the unification in 1990. Especially in the area of entrepreneurship and businesses, impulses are necessary. September 2020, we spend two days talking about the past and the future of this land with local leaders, casting a joint vision for the eastern part of Germany.
Germany | MUT2020 Workshop
In October 2020, God@Work Germany, CKS, Digital8 and LYDIA Connect hosted a Generational Business workshop at the MUT2020 conference in Schwäbisch Gmünd. Everywhere in Europe we see generations being disconnected. Alone in Germany roughly 230000 business owners are looking for successors. We believe that the young generations Y and Z are required to pour their vision into these businesses. We specifically developped a tool for this conference to facilitate generations to connect again.
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Our team

We founded LYDIA Connect in 2018 because we saw multiple crises in business. Not only a leadership crisis, but also how business should be run. For example: how much profit is enough?

We want to help you to balance human, social, natural and financial capital. To bring back the deeper purpose of your business.

Tiemen Fahner

Tiemen Fahner

Tiemen Fahner (CEO of LYDIA Connect) is an entrepreneur and transformational leader who is passionate about empowering people to discover and fully exploit their potential. He has more than 20 years experience as a senior executive and program manager within Shell. He is adept at building organizations and has thorough knowledge of the development of new products, concepts and services. His strength lies in advising teams with the aim of healthy relationships, taking accountability and high performance.

  • Leadership trainer, coach and consultant
  • Empowers people to discover and fully exploit their potential
  • Advises teams to build healthy relationships and achieve high performance
  • 20 years of experience as senior manager, lead program manager and operations manager in Shell
  • Expert in building teams and improving organizational effectiveness
  • Experienced in developing new products, concepts and services
  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science with further qualifications in the areas of Business Management, Program Management and Organizational Development
Monique Fahner

Monique Fahner

Monique Fahner (innovations director of LYDIA Connect) is an entrepreneur with a heart for economic justice. As a political scientist she found that when politically nothing is possible, entrepreneurs can offer a solution or outcome. She mobilizes and inspires entrepreneurs to bring lasting transformation to society. Her strength lies in innovation, improvisation and perseverance to realize creative solutions in complex situations.

  • Trainer and consultant in transformational leadership
  • Creative thinker and improvisor
  • Creates context and structure for choices and decisions to be made, especially to change perspective from short-term to long-term
  • Challenges leaders in business to take a moral stand and bring justice in their business and their industry
  • Researcher for several community projects
  • Organizer of projects and seminars
  • Master’s degree in Political Science, as researcher specialized in the areas of International Politics, Comparative Politics and Developmental Politics

Contact us

NL Trade Register no.: 71657088
VAT no.: NL858799029B01
All our prices are excluding 21% VAT

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Many SME entrepreneurs experience how difficult it is to build and grow a successful business. That is why we have developed a 5-step method that allows you to achieve healthy growth with a successful and responsible team.

+31 6 1439 4833

info@lydiaconnect.com

Markenhaven 49, 3826AC Amersfoort, Netherlands

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