Business development between Britain and Central & Eastern Europe.
Helping defence, technology and industrial companies identify opportunities, build partnerships and develop business across the UK and CEE markets — from a base in Poznań.
Poland is the operating base. Work runs in both directions across the region — market access travelling east, industrial capacity and partners travelling west.
Who I work with
Four kinds of organisation, moving in two directions along the same corridor.
UK → CEE
British firms entering the region
Defence, technology and industrial companies that can see the opportunity but do not know the buyers, the programmes or the partners.
CEE → UK
CEE firms entering the UK and NATO ecosystems
Manufacturers and technology companies seeking British customers, prime relationships and a route into allied supply chains.
Both ways
Defence & dual-use companies
Firms whose route to market runs through programmes, primes and consortia rather than straightforward commercial sales.
Both ways
SMEs seeking partners
Companies that need a manufacturing, distribution or teaming partner in the other market, and evidence about which one to pick.
Capabilities
Four areas of work. Most engagements draw on more than one.
Market Development
- Market mapping
- Opportunity identification
- Competitor and ecosystem research
- Market-entry support
Partnership Development
- Partner identification
- Introductions
- Distributor and supplier searches
- Strategic partnerships
- Teaming opportunities
Business Development
- Target account research
- Stakeholder mapping
- Outreach
- Meeting generation
- Opportunity qualification
UK ↔ CEE Bridge
- Local representation
- Relationship development
- Cultural and commercial navigation
- Trade show and conference representation
When I can help
Concrete situations where bringing in someone on the ground changes the outcome.
You’re a British company looking east
You know there is an opportunity somewhere in the region but don’t know the market, the buyers or the potential partners — and the cost of finding out slowly is a year you don’t get back.
You’re a CEE company looking toward the UK
You need commercial introductions, market intelligence or someone who can represent you credibly to British organisations.
You’re attending MSPO or another regional defence event
You want someone identifying targets before you land, arranging the conversations while you’re there, and following the opportunities after everyone has gone home.
You’re looking for a local partner
You need someone to map the ecosystem, screen the candidates properly, and open the doors that matter.
Regional market development without hiring a full-time country manager.
A physical presence in the region, a British commercial instinct, and someone who does the work rather than advising on it.
British, regionally based
Resident in Poland and working across Central & Eastern Europe, combined with an understanding of how British organisations actually make decisions.
Military and commercial background
Able to hold a conversation with a defence organisation while still thinking commercially about where the revenue comes from.
Operator, not just adviser
I research, prospect, make the introductions, attend the meetings and follow the opportunity through. The work is the deliverable.
Independent
Flexible enough for SMEs that cannot yet justify a country manager or a full business development team.
Background
Enough to establish the proposition, not to become it.
- Royal Navy
- Former commissioned officer.
- Cambridge
- Natural Sciences.
- Commercial
- Sales, cybersecurity, technology and startup work.
- Region
- Based in Poznań, working in English and Polish.
How engagements are structured
Each stands alone. Taken in order, they move a company from understanding a market to holding a pipeline and named partners in it.
Market Entry Sprint
Fractional Business Development
Partner & Industrial Matchmaking
Give me a market, a target or a problem.
Tell me what you sell and who buys it today. I will reply with an honest read on whether the market is worth your time — and if it is not, I will say so.
Capabilities
Four areas of work across the UK–CEE corridor. Most engagements draw on more than one; all of them end in something written down.
Market Development
- Market mapping
- Opportunity identification
- Competitor and ecosystem research
- Market-entry support
- Programme and procurement route analysis
Partnership Development
- Partner identification
- Introductions
- Distributor and supplier searches
- Strategic partnerships
- Teaming opportunities
- Registry and ownership verification
Business Development
- Target account research
- Stakeholder mapping
- Outreach
- Meeting generation
- Opportunity qualification
- Pipeline reporting
UK ↔ CEE Bridge
- Local representation
- Relationship development
- Cultural and commercial navigation
- Trade show and conference representation
- HQ visit coordination
How this is bought
Capabilities are delivered through three engagement shapes. A first piece of work is usually a sprint, because it is finite and produces something you can circulate internally; the other two follow from what it finds.
Where the line is
Introductions, not brokerage. I identify, qualify and introduce partners, and I represent companies commercially. I do not trade goods, hold stock, or act as an agent in regulated transactions. Where an engagement touches a controlled sector, that boundary is written into the agreement before work begins.
Which of these do you actually need?
Describe the situation and I will tell you which capability applies — or that none of them do.
Markets and counterparties
The corridor runs in both directions between Britain and Central & Eastern Europe. What travels each way is different, and so is the work.
Coverage
Poland is the home market and the operating base — it is the largest defence and industrial economy in the region, and the one I know first-hand. Work extends across Central & Eastern Europe from there: Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and the Baltic states.
Coverage outside Poland is built engagement by engagement rather than claimed wholesale. If you need a market I do not already work in, I will say so, and scope the additional groundwork explicitly rather than quietly billing the learning curve.
On registry checks. Counterparties are verified against national company registers before introduction — KRS and REGON in Poland, and the equivalent registers in each other jurisdiction. The depth of what is publicly filed varies by country, and I will tell you where it is thinner.
Who I work with
UK → CEE
British firms entering the region
Defence, technology and industrial companies that can see the opportunity but do not know the buyers, the programmes or the partners.
CEE → UK
CEE firms entering the UK and NATO ecosystems
Manufacturers and technology companies seeking British customers, prime relationships and a route into allied supply chains.
Both ways
Defence & dual-use companies
Firms whose route to market runs through programmes, primes and consortia rather than straightforward commercial sales.
Both ways
SMEs seeking partners
Companies that need a manufacturing, distribution or teaming partner in the other market, and evidence about which one to pick.
When to bring me in
You’re a British company looking east
You know there is an opportunity but don’t know the market, the buyers or the potential partners — and the cost of finding out slowly is a year you don’t get back.
You’re a CEE company looking toward the UK
You need commercial introductions, market intelligence or someone who can represent you credibly to British organisations.
You’re attending MSPO or another regional defence event
You want someone identifying targets before you land, arranging the conversations while you’re there, and following the opportunities after everyone has gone home.
You’re looking for a local partner
You need someone to map the ecosystem, screen the candidates properly, and open the doors that matter.
You have an opportunity and no one to work it
A live enquiry, an inbound approach or a first order arrived from the region, and nobody internally has the time or the language to take it further.
Geography
Based in Poznań, Wielkopolska — western Poland, on the Berlin–Warsaw corridor. Warsaw is two hours away, Wrocław and Berlin about three; most of Poland is a day trip, which means meetings happen in person rather than on a call. The rest of the region’s capitals are a short flight.
UK coverage is by travel and existing relationships rather than a second office. Where a British engagement needs regular physical presence, that is scoped explicitly rather than implied.
Which side of the corridor are you on?
Tell me the market you are trying to reach and what you would need to see to commit to it.
James Bush
A British commercial operator based in Poland, working the corridor between two defence and technology ecosystems that increasingly need each other.
Background
- Royal Navy
- Former commissioned officer.
- Cambridge
- Natural Sciences.
- Commercial
- Sales, cybersecurity, technology and startup work.
- Region
- Based in Poznań, working in English and Polish.
The specific advantage
Most people who can navigate Central & Eastern Europe commercially are from the region, and most people who understand how a British board reaches a decision are in Britain. The useful position is the one in between: physically present in the region, but able to write a paper a UK commercial director will actually act on.
The military background matters for a narrower reason than it might appear. It is not a credential to display — it means I can sit in a conversation with a defence organisation, follow what is actually being discussed, and still think commercially about where the revenue is. Those two registers rarely sit in the same person.
How I prefer to work
- In person — meetings in the room, in the local language where that opens the door
- Verified — counterparties checked against national company registers before they reach you
- Written down — one report on a fixed rhythm, in a form a board can read
- Bounded — introductions and representation, never brokerage in regulated transactions
- Honest about fit — if the market is wrong for you, that is a finding, not a failure
Selected experience
Representative projects and client references will be published here as engagements complete and permission to name them is given. Nothing appears in this section until it is real and cleared.
Worth a conversation?
Thirty minutes is usually enough to establish whether there is something here for you.
Partner with me
Not every useful conversation starts with an engagement. If you are looking for something on either side of this corridor, it is worth telling me — the value of a node is what passes through it.
Who gets in touch
Companies
Looking for business development representation in Central & Eastern Europe or the UK.
Consultancies
Looking for local research or delivery capability on the ground in the region.
Prime contractors
Looking for regional suppliers, SMEs or technology partners for a programme or bid.
CEE companies
Looking for British customers, partners or a route into allied supply chains.
Investors
Looking for commercial intelligence on a market, a sector or a specific company.
What to send
A paragraph is enough. What you sell or are looking for, which market, and what you would need to see to move forward. If I am not the right person, I will say so and point you at someone better placed — that costs me nothing and saves you a month.
On confidentiality. Early conversations are treated as confidential by default. Where a search or a market assessment requires it, an NDA is signed before anything substantive is discussed.
Tell me what you’re looking for.
One paragraph on what you need and which market. I reply to everything that is specific.
Insights
Research a commercial director might actually forward to a colleague. No SEO filler, no “five reasons business development matters”.
Planned programme
None of the pieces below are published yet. They are listed so you can see the direction of the work — and tell me which would be most useful to you, which genuinely affects the order I write them in.
Entering the Polish Defence Market: A Guide for British SMEs
Market entryProgrammes, procurement routes, offset expectations and the practical sequence a smaller British firm should follow.
Ten CEE Defence Companies UK Firms Should Know
EcosystemWho they are, what they build, what they need from abroad, and where a British supplier plausibly fits.
Understanding Poland’s Defence Procurement Ecosystem
ProcurementHow a requirement becomes a contract, who holds the pen at each stage, and where foreign firms most often stall.
MSPO: Commercial Opportunities for British SMEs
EventsWhat the show is actually good for, how to prepare a target list, and what to do in the four weeks afterwards.
The Eastern Flank: Where Commercial Opportunities Emerge
AnalysisReading the UK–CEE defence relationship for the commercial openings it creates underneath.
CEE Defence Manufacturing Capability Map
ReferenceCapability by country and category — a reference document rather than an article.
Which of these would you read?
If one of these would be useful to you or your team, say so — it moves up the queue, and I will send it to you first.
Capability statement
Written to be circulated internally — the version someone forwards to their commercial director after meeting me at a trade show.
James Bush
Independent UK ↔ CEE Business Development
contact@jamesbush.eu
Core capabilities
- Market mapping and opportunity identification
- Partner, distributor and supplier search
- Target account and stakeholder research
- Meeting generation and opportunity qualification
- Local commercial representation
- Trade show and conference representation
- Teaming and consortium partner identification
Markets served
- Defence and dual-use
- Technology and cybersecurity
- Industrial and manufacturing
- British firms entering Central & Eastern Europe
- CEE firms entering the UK and NATO ecosystems
Geographic coverage
Based in Poznań, Poland — the home market and operating base. Work extends across Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and the Baltic states. United Kingdom by travel and established relationships. Working languages English and Polish.
Relevant background
- Royal Navy — former commissioned officer
- University of Cambridge — Natural Sciences
- Commercial — sales, cybersecurity, technology, startups
- Resident in Poland
Differentiators
- British commercial instinct with a physical presence in the region
- Defence-literate and commercially driven
- Operator, not adviser — research, outreach and meetings delivered directly
- Independent and flexible for SMEs below country-manager scale
- Counterparties verified against national company registers before introduction
Engagement models
- Market Entry Sprint — 30 days to a target list, partner map and 90-day plan
- Fractional Business Development — monthly in-market commercial presence
- Partner & Industrial Matchmaking — longlist to written recommendation
- Event and in-country representation
Representative projects
To be completed. Project summaries and references will be added as engagements conclude and naming permission is granted.
Scope boundary
Partner identification, qualification, introduction and commercial representation. Not a broker or agent: no trading of goods, no stock held, no agency in regulated transactions. Sector-specific boundaries are agreed in writing before work begins.
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Market Entry Sprint
In 30 days, I’ll tell you where the real opportunities are, who matters, and what you should do next.
What it is
A finite, four-week piece of work that replaces guesswork with a map. I establish who buys what you sell, which competitors already hold that ground, how the money actually reaches a supplier, and which fifteen to thirty people decide.
It is deliberately short and deliberately low-risk. You commit to a month, not a headcount, and you finish with a document your board can act on — or credibly decline to act on.
What you receive
- Target-account list — ranked, with the reason each name is on it
- Local partner map — distributors, integrators and manufacturers who could carry you
- Competitor landscape — who is already there, at what price, through which channel
- Procurement & programme routes — how a company like yours actually gets bought
- 15–30 named decision-makers — role, seniority, and how to reach them
- Selected introductions — warm, made during the sprint, not promised for later
- 90-day action plan — sequenced, with an owner against each step
How the month runs
- Week 1Briefing & scopingHalf a day with your commercial lead. What you sell, what you will not compromise on, what a good year would look like.
- Weeks 1–2Desk mappingRegistry, tender and trade-data work. The longlist is built and cut here, before anyone is contacted.
- Weeks 2–3In-country conversationsCalls and meetings with buyers, partners and people who know the sector. This is where a desk-research answer becomes a real one.
- Week 4Report & action planWritten document, then a two-hour session to walk your team through it and agree the next 90 days.
Who it suits
A defence, technology or industrial SME that keeps hearing a market is one it should be in, has no one internally who can prove or disprove that, and does not want to spend a year finding out.
It is not a research report. Half the value is the introductions made while the work is live. If the sprint ends and the market looks wrong for you, that is a legitimate outcome and I will write it plainly.
Start with a conversation
Tell me what you sell and who buys it today. Thirty minutes is usually enough to know whether a sprint is worth running.
Fractional Business Development
A commercial presence in-market, without hiring a full-time country manager.
What it is
I become your commercial presence on a monthly basis. Meetings are arranged and attended, opportunities are qualified, the CRM stays current, prospects get followed up, partners get visited, and your management receives a written market report on a fixed rhythm.
To a local buyer, there is a person in-country who answers the phone, speaks the language, and can be in their office on Thursday. To you, there is no employment contract, no relocation, no office, and no twelve-month commitment before you see whether the market responds.
What I do each month
- Arrange and hold meetings — with buyers, partners and specifiers, in person where it matters
- Qualify opportunities — budget, authority, timing and realistic route to purchase
- Maintain your CRM — in your system, to your fields, so the record survives me
- Follow up relentlessly — the part most market-entry efforts quietly drop
- Visit partners — distributors and integrators need attention, not an onboarding email
- Coordinate HQ visits — agenda, logistics, interpretation, briefing pack, follow-up
- Represent you at events — industry gatherings, trade fairs and sector conferences
- Report to management — one written market report, on a schedule you can plan around
The operating rhythm
| Weekly | Pipeline update and a short written market note — what moved, what stalled, what I need from you. |
|---|---|
| Monthly | Management call against the agreed targets, plus a full written report for the board pack. |
| Quarterly | Target reset. We keep what is working, kill what is not, and re-point the effort. |
| As needed | Partner visits, customer site visits, HQ delegations, and event representation. |
Who it suits
A company with genuine interest in the market — often after a sprint, an inbound enquiry, or a first order that arrived unprompted — but nothing close to the volume that justifies a local hire yet.
It also suits firms that have tried a distributor and found the pipeline went quiet: someone has to work the market, and a distributor works their own.
What I need from you. One named person at HQ who can answer a question within two working days, and honest pricing. Everything else I can build. Without those two, no amount of local presence produces a deal.
A presence in-market from next month
Most retainers begin after a short scoping call and a first month of clear, agreed targets.
Partner & Industrial Matchmaking
We identified twelve possible partners, interviewed six, introduced you to three, and recommend two.
What it is
A structured search for the company you need on your side — and, just as importantly, evidence about the ones you should walk away from. Central & Eastern Europe has deep industrial capacity and a crowded middle market; the difficulty is never finding names, it is knowing which of them can actually deliver at your volume and standard.
Every candidate is checked against public registry records before it reaches you: ownership and control, filed accounts, registered activity, and whether the person in the meeting can sign.
Partners I look for
- Manufacturing partners — contract production and localisation of assembly
- Distributors — with the sector coverage and the sales bench to use it
- Systems integrators — where your product has to land inside something larger
- Service & MRO partners — in-country support, maintenance and spares
- Subcontractors — specific capability, capacity and certification
- Consortium partners — where a bid requires a local entity alongside you
How the funnel narrows
Indicative shape of a typical search, not a record of past work. The count that matters is the last one — you should finish holding a short, defensible recommendation, not a spreadsheet of companies you now have to assess yourself.
How the search runs
- Stage 1Define the partnerCapability, capacity, certification, geography, and the commercial model you can actually live with.
- Stage 2Build and screen the longlistRegistry, sector and supply-chain sources. Ownership, accounts and activity codes checked before contact.
- Stage 3Interview the shortlistStructured conversations in the local language. Capacity, current customers, appetite, and who signs.
- Stage 4Introduce and supportWarm introductions, meetings arranged and attended, plus follow-up on both sides.
- Stage 5Recommend in writingA short document: who to proceed with, on what basis, and what to watch in each.
Who it suits
Firms that need localisation, a manufacturing footprint, or a credible local name beside theirs — whether to serve customers who insist on local content, to shorten a supply chain, or to qualify for work that a foreign entity cannot bid alone.
An important distinction. I find and qualify partners. I am not a broker or an agent: I do not trade goods, hold stock, negotiate on your behalf, or take a position in the transaction. Where an engagement touches a regulated sector, that boundary is written into the agreement before work begins.
Looking for a partner?
Describe the capability you need. If it exists in the region, I will tell you roughly where and how deep the field is before you commit to anything.