A flat Chain of Command is a company without a hierarchy system that includes a CEO within the business layer. According to the article, Valve Corporation is using the exact same structure.
Valve, an influential video game company that created Steam is most well known from their popular innovative online games such as Counter strike and Team Fortress 2. Just like a flat structure, the company is run without a single layer of hierarchy. To ellaborate, the individuals within the company do not have to report anything to anyone. In fact, they are able to do anything they wish to. BBC, one on Britain’s highly credited news broadcast has reported that, “the employees sit where they want, choose what to work on and decide each other’s pay.” Surprisingly, despite the risky structure, Valve is known to be one of the top influential video corporations.
For the majority of companies, there is a reason why they choose to have a hierarchical structure. Because within a hierarchy, a leader has the power to control his or her staffs. This can be very efficient within a business as lower-level of employees may not have a clue on what they are doing. In contrast to this system, Valve is doing the exactly the opposite. I believe Valve should at least consider changing the business structure of become partially hierarchical in order to prevent the risks a total flat structure may cause.