Copy what trade leader took in after management school (7)
I believe the answer is:
imitate
'copy' is the definition.
(I know that copy can be written as imitate)
'took in after management school' is the wordplay.
'took in' becomes 'ate' (take in can mean to eat).
'after' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'management school' becomes 'imit' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'ate' put after 'imit' is 'IMITATE'.
'what trade leader' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for imitate that I've seen before include "I tame it to copy it" , "Reproduce" , "Copy someone" , "Mimic or follow as a model" , "Follow suit" .)