Prejudices: Not PhD's per se. But more in the context of people who spruik their credentials indiscriminately. Doesn't have to be a PhD but even those with their numerous lettering at the back of their names. More so for people who are actually enamoured by academic credentials...

Honarary PhDs: I don't think there has be any "philosophical novelty" for them to awarded these degrees. As I said, all you have to do is either be famous or donate a lot of money to the school.

Publishing journals: Thanks but no thanks. I took a first writing my honours thesis which I chose not to publish. Could have enrolled in a direct PhD straight away but refrained. Actually, come to think of it, that first paper could be one of many papers to form the thesis. Some people I know did and have since gotten their PhDs though they were realistic enough to know that they shouldn't expect a "PhD premium" if they were coming out to the finance marketplace to get work...

Anyway, the moral of the story is, which I have always reiterated is that PhD are only needed in research and/or academia. A lot of good things have come out of research - probably more so in the hard sciences than in the social sciences/arts.

Back to the topic... a PhD is not relevant in business - so you should be most wary of people who try to use fancy titles to impress you...