How to ... Run a company with a flat management system

Sun Hydraulics CEO Al Carlson has spoken nationwide about his company's flat, or horizontal, management system, where titles and hierarchy are nonexistent.

Audiences range from a class of Harvard M.B.A. students in Boston to a group of senior executives from a $16 billion food conglomerate who spent a few days at Sun's Sarasota headquarters.

The key to going flat: Don'ts are more important than do's. The don't list includes: No budgets, sales forecasts, management perks, private offices and formal performance reviews.