Career
He was replaced by Graham Day at the helm. During his time at Austin Morris he oversaw the sacking of Derek Robinson and the strike that followed. He also oversaw the introduction of the Austin Maestro and Triumph Acclaim.
Both were models that had limited success.
His time was riddled with industrial relations problems much of which was considered to be provoked by heavy-handed management techniques. Much of the controversy engendered by Musgrove during his tenure is attributed to hubris.
However, some of his decisions did little (if anything) to endear employees. Such actions include his underhanded efforts to eliminate the Mini and his decision to fire Director of Design David Bache.
Musgrove came up through the manufacturing ranks but lacked real commercial knowledge, at times using nostalgia as a reason for driving product plans forward—one such idea was to bring back the Austin of England brand as a way of dynamising the company.
Musgrove would later go on to join the National Health Service in 1991 as chair of West Midlands Ambulance Service, before moving to Heartlands Hospital in Birmingham to manage the controversial merger with Solihull Hospital. He became chairman of the Hospital in 1998. The running of that hospital under his chairmanship was heavily criticised by the new Worcester Member of Parliament Michael Foster and he left shortly afterwards.
