PhD or MBB?

On first take MBB appears to be better. More capitalized letters.

  On the other hand MBB is skewed 13,2,2
  whereas
  PhD is a nice distribution as well as a geometric progression 16,8,4

Nice analysis clb1…but you presume A is 1. If Z is 1 then MBB is 14, 25, 25 and PhD is 11, 19, 23. So MBB is worth 64 while PhD is worth only 53.
That would lead one to believe an MBB is better but that’s based on the assumption the higher score is the more desirable.
Seems everything is based on assumptions. Ah-ha, Tuguchi…there’s your answer – everything is based on assumptions.
Good-bye.

What a dumb question. A PhD hands down People who know will assume they need to talk slowly to the PhD,
but it’s not a fad. It’s also not something that people can anoint
themselves with.

Very intelligent response.

I understood that the MBB was only the cost of some Microsoft software.

This reminds me of a statically indeterminate question from engineering school. It cannot be solved. Please note that the underlined word is not a typo.
Now if I think statistically:
What is the response variable of interest? Y = earning potential, hot air expelled, boardroom presence (somebody actually told me an MBB needs this characteristic…..oh my goodness)
If you conducted this study, how well could you control the knob for X? If you randomly select 10 MBBs, would you consider them categorically the same? This is similar to running a DOE with temperature as an X variable, and never knowing if you are at your set-point. If you did an analysis of residuals by factor, would you see equal dispersion for the PhD as for the MBB?
I took the liberty to anwser like a geek since this is a web site for those who should understand statistics.
HACL
 

Darth is right.
So, get your PhD, add in an MBB then you can become a PHB.

Ture Stan…as are most titles…
I prefer BAS^3-P (Bad-A$$ Six Sigma Supah-Pimp)
;-)

hmm…
If A=1 then MBB is a subset of Prime Numbers
If Z=1 then PhD is a subset of Prime Numbers
I wouldn’t want an MBB to remove my appendix.
And I think both can legitimately answer this question with “It Depends!”
 

Experience who cares about the letters after your name the only thing they tend to prove is your boredom level.
 

Yeah, education is way over rated. You just need to do things. That’s why I quit after the 5th grade. And I’m driving a really big truck now. See!

Tuguchi
I tend to agree with Darth…they are not mutually exclusive, you can have both.  They do have different tendencies…the PhD toward academia and the MBB toward industry.  I also tend to agree with Stan…that titles are not that important, skills/capabilities/results are what is important.
I ended up as an MBB first and then decided to pursue my PhD…my thoughts were that, at some point in my career, I might want to be able to do either industry or academia.  Now…I just want to do great work for great organizations.
Obiwan

To the unnamed Name Thief (although s/he tried to cover it up)….I believe that I do understand 1 tail versus 2 tail…and many of my mentors would agree (some of which post here)…
Obiwan

In the world of Hip Hop (dont stop, da roof is on fiya)…Snoop Dog was asked this question at the last Six Sigma Summit panel discussion topic of “DMAIC and the Hip Hop industry, Are control charts necessary?” ….and Snoop (he allowed all in the audience to call him that)….said it is easier to use PHD in lyrics than MBB.  That is based on collection of data around how many times PHD was/is used in todays rap music.  So PHD is better….or as Snoop put it….its “dope” and its “tight”…!!

I’m going to assume that your question is specific to which would make you more valuable within the marketplace (considering a PhD would most likely be a requirement to get into academia rather than an option). 
Personally, I’d calculate how much time you’d spend weekly getting either one.  Figure 20 hours/week for 6 months for MBB and 20 hours/week for 2 years for a PhD.  I would then cut that number in half and dedicate that time to driving improvements and financial savings within your current organization.  Then spend 25% of that initial total time reading textbooks, attending seminars on MBB/PhD topics and talking with assorted MBB’s and PhD’s about your projects. 
Voila – you’ve made yourself much more marketable in 75% of the time. 
Then if you still want letters, you can shell out a couple bucks from a certification mill for your MBB (but yours will actually mean something since you spent the time running projects).
If I was a hiring manager, I’d rather see documented project successes than letters after your name.  If I was a colleague, I’d respect commitment and results more so than certificates.  Just my opinion.
 

First. Thank you for the compliment if all you can pick fault with is sentence structure I take it you can’t fault the argument.
Second. I din’t leave school early and got my qualification and titles etc. Which probably also proves my point.
Third and not an excuse. Dyslexia……. If you can understand what I’ve said it’s a good day. At least most of the words are in the correct order.