Des Moines has been included on lots of desirable lists, so we shouldn’t get greedy. But it would have been great to be one of CNNMoney.com’s “8 Cities That Want Your Business!”

OK, so we don’t appear on that list. More important is that we can learn from it. Here’s a sampling of what those cities are doing to attract companies.

Pittsburgh has InnovationWorks, an economic development organization that “has provided more than $45 million in financing to more than 125 technology start-ups since it started 10 years ago.” Also available: Business consulting for start-ups and a grant program that helps small manufacturers be more efficient and helps universities turn ideas into products. Information technology entrepreneurs “focused on starting Web, mobile, gaming or hardware firms can get free office space, mentoring” and some funding, too.

In Miami, The Launch Pad is “an assistance network is designed to encourage and support University of Miami students and alumni who want to start ventures – particularly in south Florida. The Launch Pad offers business education, one-on-one consulting, networking events and other resources to entrepreneurs affiliated with any of the university’s schools, including undergrads, M.B.A.s, doctors and lawyers.” It has helped launch “45 businesses that have created more than 100 jobs in the area.”

Menlo Park, Calif., has The Foundry, “a business incubator that helps universities, researchers and inventors turn ideas for medical devices into successful companies.” In 22 years, it “has helped launch a dozen companies … responsible for creating more than 350 jobs.”

Central Iowa has some fine programs and organizations of its own that help draw companies and create jobs. But we can do more.

Gov.-elect Terry Branstad appears to be determined to change the way Iowa goes about creating jobs. A list such as this one offers some field-tested approaches to consider.