Three reasons why large companies can't get design right

1. Set up a centralized design team. Designers have to be embedded in product/services teams instead of being part of a cult-like design organization that sees product people and everyone else within the company as the enemy. Designers have to sit side by side with product managers, engineers, knowledge management specialists, sales people, marketing, etc. 
2. Put non-professionals into design positions. You have seen this all along: people close to a product, suddenly making a switch to design. Documentation specialists, usability experts, engineers, marketers, etc. taking on designer roles. I am not against promoting brilliant people who have demonstrated some design thinking ability but based on my experience that is not usually the case. Understanding the basics of design and speak intelligently about it can be picked up quite easily if you are a curious and observant individual. To actually design something and make it work requires a completely different set of skills that come only after years of practice. 
3. Have designers focus on different products constantly.  Designers need to stick to one product at a time so they can accumulate knowledge and expertise about the problem area that is trying to be solved (experience curve effects). A designer jumping from product to product is close useless since he will always lack the required knowledge to solve a problem in an insightful way. Imagine you are given the task to present about a certain topic and you have very little understanding about the topic. How do you think your presentation will turn out? Even if you have the most amazing presentation skills I can guarantee you that your presentation is going to be quite insightless. The same happens when you design trying to solve a problem you don't understand: it is going to be phony, brainless, and silly. 

This might sound obvious but you would be surprised by the amount of companies that still make these mistakes. And is not enough to solve only one of these mistakes. You have to address all of them otherwise the experience of the products/services will still reflect the poor organizational setup put in place.