Actually you can do both, a Phd in business management

OK, I'll share my story: started my career as an Indian Air Force officer, served six years, then plunged into another big adventure by signing up for a PhD at a leading Indian business school, with an intent to become an academic. Until then (in college and school) i had a very unexceptional track record , but research was my calling, I easily topped my doctoral courses (basically topped all courses I took, which I later learned is a record, never achieved before or after me in the school's history). Yet my dissertation was fraught with uncertainty, a nerve wracking experience, but eventually I pulled it off, I got rave reviews and viva was a smooth sail.

Then I landed a post doc at ETH Zurich. Salary was fabulous (at least I thought so, that Swiss phd and postdoc salaries are handsome; maybe because I have a different frame of reference. In my third year, I was getting 100k chf, which, perks and low taxes considered, is about the same as a US Assistant Prof's). I had all the time in the world to pursue climbing and other sports, the flexible time was priceless to me, I wouldn't trade it for a million francs.

Then I got a faculty position at one of the top universities in India (the counterpart of ETH, although it is not quite close, and the pay is muuuuch less now, but it is a tenured position), I still have the option to spend considerable time abroad on work (-cum climbing, already scheming my visit to CH this summer ).

Is Phd worth it? Well, it really is not for everyone. I have seen people with utterly modest backgrounds thriving in the Phd and then becoming what they would never achieve otherwise. I have also seen clever people simply burn out during, essentially waste 1-2 years from their rat-race.

No one I have known well has done a Phd because it would make them richer (if they became, it was purely incidental). I have seen loads of people extremely successful in the corporates, seek meaningful reflection and do a Phd. Typically, we receive 200+ applications for Phd at our school, and we typically admit 2-3 candidates. About 20 applicants will be at CEO-level from top-notch companies, seeking the part-time Phd route, it is gaining increasing popularity, they join when they are in their 40s or 50's (but this is not a universal phenomenon, perhaps restricted to India).

What i don't like about the Phd is that, as some posters have alluded to earlier, Phds and post docs are cheap labor, doing most of the research, often better than what their Prof can do herself, for much less pay/position, but at least in Switzerland no one complains because the pay is still good compared to most other countries and you are treated well.

Again, academics is not for everyone. I work in a university where the other new recruits are mostly what one could call reasonably successful in their lines (the harvard/MIT phds types). I am sure none would move to a corporate job even with 10x salary, some simply can't succeed there (e.g. me); some might succeed but simply don't want to get back there.