What do PUBG Mobile and Martech consulting have in common?

I’m a gamer. I love playing games to unwind. Some cook, some garden. I game. One of the games I started playing with my son several years ago was PUBG Mobile. Together, we would drop into maps and get busy looting and dominating.

I’ve played thousands of matches, and Erangel is my go-to map when I want to level up or test my skills. The game rewards strategic thinking, precise timing, and, above all, effective team coordination.

Was I any good? Well, when I find time to play these days, I can reach the higher tiers with relative ease. I usually stop when I reach the Ace Dominator level. When I do, I notice a few things start working differently.

What's remarkable at this level is that you can drop into a squad of three total strangers, often from different countries, and without a single word exchanged, you’ll still play like a team. No language, no introductions, no instructions. And yet, there's a shared sense of what needs to be done. One flanks, one covers, one scopes the high ground, and another watches the zone. It’s not perfect, but it's efficient, and it's effective.

This unspoken collaboration is especially interesting when you consider how chaotic lower levels can be. New players often play for themselves, wander off alone, or hoard loot. However, at higher tiers, there’s an implicit agreement → loot is shared so the entire team can gear up evenly. A better-equipped team survives longer. You don't hoard scopes or hog medkits, you pass them around. The collective strength of the squad matters more than individual advantage.

There’s something beautifully selfless about that, and it reminds me a lot of high-level Martech consulting I have seen and participated in.

When you’re dropped into a company as a seasoned consultant, what I’d call Ace Dominator level, you often don’t get a pre-game briefing. You’re landing cold, and the zone’s already shrinking. But the instincts kick in. You scan the field, understand the objective without needing to be told, and start acting in ways that improve the team’s position. The aim isn’t mere survival. It’s a coordinated push toward victory.

Experienced consultants don’t wait to be handed a plan. They construct one from the fragmented signals in front of them. Roles emerge through action rather than assignment. Weak spots in coverage are addressed before they turn into problems. Movement happens with intention, not hesitation. And crucially, you know when to stay quiet and when to make the call.

This is what I call the Experienced Player Effect. It goes far beyond skill.

An experienced player brings a few things to the playing field:

• Positioning: they know where to place themselves to be useful fast, whether in the war room or in the weeds.
• Unspoken awareness: they read the room and the context without waiting for explicit direction.
• Balance: they prioritize the team's performance over personal wins, ensuring everyone is equipped and aligned.
• Grit: they stay calm under pressure, keep moving forward when things go sideways, and never lose sight of the objective.

In PUBG, this is the teammate who rotates early, drops a medpack for the player he just revived, and picks the right fights. In Martech, it's the consultant who keeps things moving, avoids ego traps, and gets the whole squad through the storm.

More subtly, they model what "good" looks like. The way they share information, make trade-offs, and anticipate failure modes sets a tone for others. Others begin to mirror it. It doesn’t need to be explained. It just becomes part of the match, a team ethos.

Still, PUBG isn’t a solo shooter. And Martech isn’t either.

Even when I’m playing well in Erangel, I can’t carry a squad of three who refuse to move, hide in buildings, or keep running into open fields. Success in both worlds demands a willingness to play the game right. The best consultants I know thrive in cross-functional teams, not because they dominate the conversation, but because they elevate it.

Hiring an experienced consultant isn’t about plugging in a hero. We’re still human, trust me. It only works if the rest of the team is ready to adapt. That means being open to learning by doing, willing to shift roles when the terrain changes, and hungry to improve their own situational awareness. The best teams are fluid. And that fluidity is something that both experienced consultants require and foster.

If you're building a Martech team, especially under pressure to deliver, you have a choice. You either train everyone on the fly and hope for the best, or bring in someone who has already survived 100 endgames. An experienced consultant won’t just help you win the current round. They’ll raise the game of your entire squad.

And when the final circle closes in, that might be the difference between heading back to the lobby or sharing that Chicken Dinner, evenly looted and hard-earned.

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