The reason people in power don't care about design is because good design is hard to quantify and thus hard to justify effort and/or expense. The results of ba

The reason people in power don't care about design is because good design is hard to quantify and thus hard to justify effort and/or expense. The results of bad design (i.e. takeoff power from grandparent) are much easier to quantify and therefore easier to use to catalyze improvement. This is why Apple, under Jobs, was so unique. He helped rebuild the company around design despite the fact that their obsession with design cost them loads of money (in the short term). In the longer term, their products' success has spoken for itself but you can bet that past shareholders/board members were constantly asking "do we need this?"