From Deloitte to OKR Asia: Building a 7-Figure Consulting Firm in SE Asia | Carsten Ley

Ever wondered how to turn your corporate consulting skills into a lean, seven-figure business that works with startups, corporates AND governments across Asia?

In this episode, Linh Podetti sits down with Carsten Ley, founder of OKR Asia & Asia PMO, a German consultant who left Deloitte, moved to Vietnam, and built a strategy, OKR and project management consultancy serving clients across Southeast Asia and beyond.

Carsten shares how he:
Transitioned from bank teller → Deloitte consultant → Lazada VP → founder
Built a 10+ person consulting firm with a global network of freelancers
Uses OKRs (Objectives & Key Results) to align messy startups and fast-growing teams
Landed clients like The Oodie during COVID by going fully online
Pivoted from startup clients to corporate and government projects when funding dried up
Now blends consulting with university lecturing at RMIT Vietnam after getting an MBA at 49

ABOUT CARSTEN
Carsten Ley is a German-born business transformation leader, living in Southeast Asia for over a decade, and the founder of consulting firms Asia PMO and OKR Asia. With more than 20 years’ experience in banking, consulting and e-commerce, he has held roles at firms such as Deloitte, Citibank and Lazada, and led major transformation programmes for clients including Volkswagen, Rolls‑Royce and Home Credit.
As an OKR (Objectives & Key Results) expert, Carsten specialises in turning strategy into action: helping organisations implement agile goal‐setting, align teams across functions, and drive measurable outcomes rather than outputs.
He is also an accomplished keynote speaker, trainer and coach on topics of goal-setting, project & change management and customer/employee experience in Asia.

Connect with Carsten​
🌐 Website: https://www.okrasia.com/
💼 LinkedIn:   / carstenley  
📘 Facebook:   / carsten.ley  
📱 Instagram:   / carstenleyspeaker  

🔑 Episode Highlights
00:00 – Welcome & why Carsten “has no legacy plan”
02:10 – What OKR Asia does: strategy, OKRs & project management across SE Asia
10:20 – What are OKRs? Objectives & key results explained simply
13:10 – OKRs vs KPIs and shifting teams from “tasks done” to “results achieved”
16:00 – Accountability, weekly check-ins & creating internal OKR Champions
18:40 – Carsten’s early life in Germany: bank apprenticeship, late-start student, going abroad
21:30 – Deloitte years: consulting skills, proposals & the foundation for his own firm
24:00 – Moving to Vietnam, banking PMO role & joining Lazada’s startup chaos
27:10 – Discovering OKRs at Lazada (and how NOT to roll them out)
32:30 – Leveraging ex-colleague networks & “high hire-and-fire” companies as a secret advantage
35:10 – Building a lean consulting model: part-time consultants, multiple clients, no full-time bench
38:00 – Surviving COVID: 3 months of no income, then going global & online
40:30 – When startup funding dried up: shifting to corporate and government clients
43:00 – Diversifying services: training vs consulting and adapting to each market
45:00 – Living and working in Vietnam: trust, culture & the sacred lunch break
50:30 – What he hopes his students say about him & how to “time-box” experiments
53:00 – Final advice + where to connect with Carsten online

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ABOUT THE HOST​
Linh Podetti is the CEO and Founder of Outsourcing Angel, a Sydney-based company that helps to create jobs for people in the Philippines while creating freedom for business owners around the world. Linh has been an active member of EO Sydney since June 2022, and she actively seeks out opportunities to promote and uplift fellow entrepreneurs.​
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