NatWest Group

Research Consultant

Noggin The Brain People

🧠 Noggin The Brain People 🧠

Sainsbury's Bank

Head of Research, Planning & Brand

Head of Propositions & Innovation

Head of Customer Insight & Innovation

The Marketing Society Scotland

Chair Of Marketing Society Scotland

Heineken UK

Head Of CMI (Consumer & Market Intelligence)

Category Insights Controller

PepsiCo Intl

Consumer Insights For All PepsiCo Portfolio Of Beverage Brands across Western & Eastern Europe

European Consumer & Market Insights Director

PepsiCo

Worked on creating new International Trademarks for PepsiCo to play in exciting growing Asian beverage categories e.g. Healthy Whites (RTD Soymilk/Drinking Yoghurts) in China, India, Vietnam & Thailand.

Asia Regional Innovation Insights Manager

Quorn Foods

Consumer & market insights for the Quorn brand.

Consumer Insight Manager

Procter & Gamble

Consumer & Product Researcher Working In Skin Beauty Care (Oil Of Olay).

Products Research

🧠 Noggin - helping improve the cognitive health of the nation 🧠 | P&G | PepsiCo | Heineken | Sainsbury's |

I have over 25 years of insight, marketing, and innovation leadership experience in FMCG and FS sectors, I know, I don't look THAT old.

I've enjoyed working for some of the world's leading brands in various categories (health & beauty, food & beverages & financial services) and regions, delivering impactful consumer and market intelligence, brand strategy, and product innovation. My time spent working on Oil Of Olay made me my mum's favourite son.

Currently, I'm a research consultant at NatWest Group, where I'm supporting the bank's customer, technology and data-driven approach to enhancing its products and services. 

I'm a co-founder at Noggin The Brain People, on a mission to improve the cognitive health of the nation & founding investor in Gutzy Organic which makes having a healthy, happy gut, fun and easy. Active investor in the technology & health & wellness arena.

I'm a former chair and current fellow of the Marketing Society in Scotland.

Mick Doran

'What we fail to notice quietly shapes what we fail to do.'


My latest What I Underlined book review The Marketing Society Scotland

https://lnkd.in/e8UKwjqZ

#discovery #useyournoggin #marketing

We need to anticipate better.



It was Drucker who said "The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence; it is to act with yesterday's logic"

And if we're honest, lots of us are doing just this. 

I have an ask / request .... 

What's shaped your thinking on this?

Books, courses, people to follow, tools you actually use for strategic foresight?

Drop them below. I'll compile everything and share it back.

Thank you in advance, please share as I'd like to get a diverse viewpoint. 🙏🏽


#StrategicForesight #FuturesThinking #UsingYourNoggin

Credibility is overrated. Seriously. 

#nofluff #training #2026goals

If work feels exhausting, it’s probably not because you’re working too hard.


But it might be because your brain never gets to switch off.

Most corporate work doesn’t tire people out with effort.

It tires them out with constant cognition. Think about it ....

Notifications.

Messages.

Decisions that feel almost too small to matter, but never stop coming.

We’ve seem to have built jobs that demand continuous attention without recovery, and then act surprised when people feel drained by mid-afternoon.

Our noggins didn’t evolve for that.

They work best in bursts .... focus, effort, rest, and ready to go again.

Work used to have more boundaries, but now it just leaks into everything.

Somewhere along the way, most also confused being busy with doing good thinking.

Fast replies.

Full calendars.

Visible responsiveness.

But clarity comes from giving the appropriate space to THINKING.

Many organisational systems are optimised for efficiency and scale. Not a bad thing mind.

However, let's not forget that human brains need context, meaning and recovery.

When those don’t line up, the system might keep running but the people absorb the cost.

Which is why so many well intentioned fixes fall flat.

We tell people to be more resilient.

We add wellbeing initiatives on top of overloaded days.

We introduce new tools that promise efficiency and quietly add another layer of 'mental noise'.

The organisations doing better are taking a different approach.

They’re reducing unnecessary decisions.

Protecting thinking time.

Simplifying priorities.

Rewarding clarity, not constant availability.

Because recovery shouldn't be an afterthought.

It’s a performance input really.

so this year, remember this ....

Burnout isn’t normally a failure of people, it’s a failure of systems....

and Tony Schwartz puts it's brilliantly

The no.1 enemy of performance is not stress. It’s the absence of recovery.

Look after your noggin, so it can look after you.

#productivity #useyournoggin #brainhealth #cognition

Crystallised Communications Limited

We empower individuals to break free from the corporate grind and step confidently into entrepreneurship. 

Our mission is to raise awareness that you have a choice—you don’t have to stay stuck in an unfulfilling corporate role, waiting for someone else to determine your future or for retirement to arrive. There is another path, and it’s yours to take."

Co-Founder

Block Dojo

Global Blockchain Incubator for Tech Start-Ups

Mentor

Techstars

Techstars is a mentorship-driven seed stage investment programme. Techstars run programmes in Austin (TX), Boston (MA), Boulder (CO), Cloud (San Antonio, TX), Chicago (IL), New York City (NY), Seattle (WA), and London (UK).

NBT (Next Big Thing)

Next Big Thing (NBT) are a Growth Studio, helping businesses build, accelerate and sustain growth to thrive in the future.

Growth Consultant

The Company of Entrepreneurs

The Company of Entrepreneurs is a Guild of the City of London and an aspirant Livery Company. It is made up of men and women who have invested their own money and time in setting up and running successful businesses.

Freeman

Anthesis Group

Following the sale of Progressive to Anthesis, now part of the Group’s Innovation practice, connecting global corporate clients to innovative, sustainable startup technologies. Anthesis is the largest group of sustainability experts globally, with over 1,400 in 23 countries.”

Director of Startup Eco-systems

Baltic Ventures

Baltic Ventures is a tech accelerator on a mission to support game-changing founding teams who are building the solutions and businesses of tomorrow. From our hyper-local base in Liverpool’s Baltic Triangle we accelerate early-stage tech businesses with global ambition

Business Coach

FemTech Lab

The leading global FemTech-focused accelerator that helps rising stars take their products to market and raise funding.

Progressive HQ

PROGRESSIVE (www.thisisprogressive.com) helps organisations unlock and commercialise new growth opportunities more rapidly than their competition and more effectively than traditional innovation programmes.
 
Based in London, with Pilot44 partner offices in San Francisco, Singapore and Australia and working across retail, automotive, financial services, media and entertainment, FMCG and professional services sectors. Collectively, we have helped organisations bring over 200 new ventures and pilots to market, adding over £120m+ of value to our clients businesses over the last 36 months.

From October 2023, we are proud to be joining Anthesis Group, the largest group of sustainability experts worldwide.

Partner / Co-Founder

University of Hull

The Government sponsored programme is an opportunity for senior business leaders to build expertise across the key areas and to boost confidence that they’re on the right track. The programme combines a practical curriculum, with one-to-one support from a business mentor, peer-learning sessions and an alumni network. By the end of the programme leaders will have developed a business growth plan to help them lead their business to release its potential.

Mentor (Help-To-Grow Management Programme)

Director of Startup Eco-systems: Anthesis Group | Author ‘The Startup Lexicon’

Stuck in a corporate role that looks great on paper but feels unfulfilling? Each week feels the same as the next, a constant fight for survival, and you feel like your only option is to hang on until retirement—no matter how far away it is?

I’ve also experienced the corporate world at a high level, so I understand how an impressive title and role can eventually lose its shine and turn into an unfulfilling weight on your shoulders. But here’s the truth: I made the leap. I stepped off the corporate train and started building my own path as an entrepreneur—and I’ve never looked back. And you can do it too. It’s not too late. Your idea is good enough. And most importantly, you are not too old.

As a leading authority on the topic of jumping the corporate train and starting your own life as your own boss, I have been invited to speak on many subjects including:
•	Why entrepreneurism could be right for you
•	Why the barriers that get in your way are ‘all in your head’ and can be bypassed
•	The 5 first steps that you need to take towards being your own boss

At the heart of what I do is providing a guiding light, helping people navigate through and out of the fog of the corporate world and into the clarity of entrepreneurship. 

At its core, my mission is to raise awareness that you have a choice—you don’t have to stay stuck in unfulfilling work, waiting for someone else to determine your future or for retirement to arrive. There is another path, and it’s yours to take."

"Looking for a compelling and captivating keynote speaker for your next event? Let's connect!

I am also the co-author of the ‘The Startup Lexicon’ a book which aims to demystify the everyday language of startups, described by Roei Samuel (exited founder and angel investor) as ‘A Rosetta Stone that levels the playing field by demystifying the jargon, terminology and acronyms that often act as a barrier to those entering the (startup) ecosystem’. 

The Lexicon is now into it’s 2nd edition and features over 270 definitions, supported by 50+ stories from experts within the startup ecosystem.

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Mick Doran's LinkedIn Performance

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