jojo, perhaps (and just perhaps ) your comments are not so obvious as you like to believe. giving a chance to this event would imply to have an open mind....
whatever....
anyone considering phd would do well asking questions, questions and more questions. that would be a good starting to find out.
never forget that even the ones that are absolutely sure have doubts later on.... and some even drop....

Hey Jojo and Sixkitten,
funnily, that's exactly what I intend to do. I am only considering a 2008 entry anyway and want to come up with a phd topic myself (which I guess in business is rather common). I'll meet my former master's dissertation supervisor at the end of this month and will talk about the whole phd issue with him. He knows me quite well and has just completed his phd last year (and has a couple of years experience in academia after working in the private sector), so he should be able to give me some valuable advice on how to proceed. Thus, I am planning to start reading around my area of interest from June onwards to get updated and see how it feels. If everything goes well and I get really into it, I'll start drafting a proposal etc to hopefully be able to apply at the end of this year. I think that leaves me enough time to seriously weigh my options and see how I get on with it without jumbing at things or risking my job. How does that sound??