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Sunday Strategist: Lee Iacocca’s Middle-Management Magic

Breaking down the boldest bets in business.

Lee Iacocca, sitting in his office in 1974.Photographer: John Olson/The LIFE Images Collection via Getty Images/The LIFE Images Collection
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By the time Lee Iacocca died last week at age 94, Ford, his former charge, had sold more than 10 million Mustang sports cars.

The Mustang lore varies, but it was Iacocca’s baby according to many accounts, principally his own. Much of the man’s eponymous autobiography details the pony car’s origin story and it still reads as a masterclass in middle management.