A Phd in all intents and purposes adds little value for business. Although saying that, pretentious investors do look for Phd caliber individuals at startups in order to secure funding. In such cases, the hypocrisy can be seen in the background of such investors who may have even worked for companies that were founded by college dropouts. Publication of research papers does not generate any revenue for an organization either other than to gain notoriety. Considering that 80% of all published research work amounts to nothing that is a lot of investment in wasted time and man hours. By the time, a Phd candidate completes their dissertation work, it is already outdated to be of any significant real use to industry. A Phd work can last anywhere between 3 to 6 years, considering market movements and the advancements in technology in industry, apart from outdated practical skills they would have very little to offer at time of graduation. In many cases, an entire support function needs to be developed by an organization to cater for Phd individuals who will even need help in refactoring and scaling their work. In most cases, they will need a lot of mentoring and training for all the basic skills that they should have learned in academics that a practically applied individual with work experience already would have to offer an organization. It is questionable what quantifiable work they produce if additional resources are needed to make it of any use to business. Invariably, theory does not supersede in practice. In many cases, theory may not be plausible to implement in practice due to uncertainty and complexity reasons for which many Phd individuals have very little experience of outside of academics. And, putting them in line of influence on business product initiatives is a big risk as they come with very little practical experience. Academics is very different from how things get done in the practical world. Who really is defined as a domain expert? Is it one that has studied a topic for decades with published papers in a sheltered environment or one that has learned the art through delivering practical projects across industry domains? In fact, as more clueless Phd people find work in industry this has driven a shortage in academic institutions. This is also an indication of how bad teaching is in academia and how out of touch it is with the complexities of the real world. Considering, only one percent of the world educated population holds a Phd, it is hardly wonder they won't be missed much in industry. Perhaps, people with Phds should really stay in academics where they can teach (lack thereof to improve their teaching skills) and publish papers (lack thereof to improve on quality research) within the confines of a protected institution and leave the practical aspects to the experienced experts in business.
