HSI maintains complete operational and reputational separation from any other entity in which the Executive Director or HSI personnel hold an interest, regardless of structure or affiliation. This protocol describes the practical rules that protect that separation in everyday work, and is published as part of HSI's commitment to operational independence.
HSI exists as an independent research institute. Its credibility, with funders, regulators, the institutions it studies, and the publications that cite its work, depends on its independence being not only real but legible. This protocol exists to ensure that the Institute's day-to-day operations match its institutional positioning: HSI's research, convenings, personnel, and public voice are HSI's alone, and are not used to advance any commercial, philanthropic, or personal interest external to the Institute.
Independence here means more than legal separation. Operational independence means the Institute looks, sounds, and behaves as a distinct organization in every context where its work is encountered. This protocol describes the rules that produce that result.
This protocol applies in any situation where HSI activity could be perceived to overlap with the activity of an adjacent entity. "Adjacent entity" is defined here as any organization, formal or informal, in which the Executive Director, an HSI team member, an HSI advisor, or an HSI board member holds an ownership stake, an executive role, an advisory position, or a comparable interest, and which engages in commercial, research, advocacy, philanthropic, or other public-facing activity.
The protocol applies regardless of whether the adjacent entity's activity is itself proper, legal, or well-aligned with HSI's mission. The question is not whether the adjacent entity does good work; the question is whether HSI's work can be cleanly distinguished from it.
Eight categories of separation apply. Each is binding.
HSI's name, logo, mark, color palette, typography, and visual treatments are used exclusively for HSI activity. They do not appear in any document, presentation, website, social media post, email signature, or other artifact produced by an adjacent entity. The reverse also holds: no adjacent entity's name, logo, or visual identity appears on HSI artifacts, in HSI venues, or in HSI communications.
HSI personnel work for HSI in their HSI capacity only. Their HSI roles, time, and attention are not used to advance the work of any adjacent entity. If an HSI team member also holds a role at an adjacent entity, the two roles are kept operationally distinct: separate calendars, separate communications, separate work product. HSI does not introduce its personnel as occupying both roles in the same conversation.
Personnel of adjacent entities are not represented as HSI personnel in any context. An advisor to an adjacent entity is not, by virtue of that advisory role, an HSI advisor.
HSI correspondence is conducted through HSI accounts, HSI letterhead, and HSI signatures. Correspondence about HSI matters does not pass through the email accounts, addresses, or letterhead of any adjacent entity. The reverse holds as well.
In conversations and meetings, HSI personnel speak as HSI personnel when the subject is HSI work. When the subject is the work of an adjacent entity, the conversation is conducted as a conversation of that entity. Personnel do not interleave the two within a single exchange.
HSI's research, publications, and intellectual work are owned by HSI and licensed only by HSI. Research conducted under HSI's name is not made available to adjacent entities for use in their commercial, advisory, or marketing activity. Research, frameworks, or analyses produced by an adjacent entity are not republished, repackaged, or relabeled as HSI work.
HSI revenue, expenses, contracts, banking, and accounts are entirely separate from any adjacent entity. HSI does not pay vendors of adjacent entities; adjacent entities do not pay HSI vendors. HSI grants and donations are received into HSI accounts and used for HSI purposes only. No HSI funds, in-kind or cash, flow to an adjacent entity, and no adjacent-entity funds flow to HSI.
Where HSI and an adjacent entity might genuinely benefit from a shared service, each entity contracts independently with the provider and pays its own costs. There is no commingled billing, no shared subscriptions, and no internal cost allocation.
HSI domains, websites, repositories, cloud accounts, software subscriptions, and data infrastructure are HSI assets, registered to HSI, and used for HSI work. Adjacent entities have separate domains, separate accounts, and separate infrastructure. HSI assets are not used to host, develop, store, or distribute work for any adjacent entity, even temporarily.
In public-facing contexts, HSI personnel represent HSI alone when speaking in their HSI capacity. They do not promote, mention, or implicitly endorse adjacent entities while introduced as HSI personnel. Conversely, when speaking in an adjacent-entity capacity, they do not invoke HSI's institutional standing.
Bios and biographies distinguish HSI roles from adjacent-entity roles clearly and separately. Roles are listed as separate roles, with separate organizations.
Where the operational separation rules above produce ambiguity in a specific case, the default response is the more conservative one. If it is unclear whether something is permissible under this protocol, it is treated as not permissible until the Executive Director resolves the question.
Where HSI is approached by a party who has misunderstood the relationship between HSI and an adjacent entity, the misunderstanding is corrected at the earliest opportunity, in writing where possible.
HSI personnel may make introductions across their professional networks. Introductions made in an HSI capacity are HSI introductions, made for HSI purposes. Introductions made in any other capacity are made in that capacity and are not represented as HSI introductions, regardless of the introducer's HSI role.
Where the introduction itself is meaningful, the introducer is clear about the capacity in which they are making it. They do not allow the recipient to assume an HSI affiliation that is not present.
HSI may from time to time co-convene events, co-publish research, or otherwise collaborate with peer institutions. Such collaborations are governed by separate agreement and are not subject to this protocol's separation rules in the way that adjacent entities are. The distinction between a peer collaboration and an adjacent-entity overlap is whether the collaborating organization is institutionally distinct from HSI's personnel, governance, and ownership.
Where there is doubt about whether a proposed collaboration involves an adjacent entity rather than a true peer institution, the Executive Director consults with the board (once constituted) before proceeding.
Adherence to this protocol is the responsibility of every HSI team member. The Executive Director is responsible for the protocol's overall effectiveness and for resolving ambiguous cases. The board, once constituted, is responsible for periodic review of compliance.
Inadvertent violations of this protocol are corrected promptly without further consequence, with documentation in the Institute's compliance log. Deliberate or repeated violations may, in the Executive Director's judgment, warrant removal from the team or other corrective action.
This protocol is not a checklist. Its purpose is to make HSI's institutional independence operationally real, not to enable rule-following while violating the underlying intent. Where the spirit and letter of the protocol diverge in a particular case, the spirit governs.
An institution is what its everyday operations make it. Saying HSI is independent is not what makes HSI independent; running HSI as an independent institution every day is. The rules in this protocol are how independence becomes operational rather than aspirational.
Horizon Search Institute
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