We only have one shot...

For the past 1 year and 2.5 months I have worked for a large company and it has been a trying experience for me.  Of the many things that I get annoyed with one tops the charts.  It is the "we only have one shot" type of mentatilty.  I don't mean that there is only one shot and the company will go broke rather we can only ask people to do something that is intensive one time or we only get a six or three month cycle for software and if isn't good then it isn't going to be good but it will be released.  Well I don't know about you but I rarely never get anything semi-complex correct the first time.  Either I work for unrealistic people, unrealistic management, super-stars, my IQ is deficient or ???.  Why can't large companies overall use a process like sprints.  Sure people could say it randomizes them, but you know what?  Getting an email every 2-5 minutes randomizes you too but people love that because it makes them feel important.  I know some groups do sprints and it works well for them.  I also realize it is hard to manage large teams (anything over 12) but there has to be a balancing act that gets fast iterations and still get the main goal done.