In a seemingly dire economic climate, when weekly reports of failing national financial institutions have become almost commonplace, a local forecast of brighter skies on the horizon might sound too good to be true.

Over the past decade, the area's resilient business community has re-engineered itself to compete in the global economy by scaling its factories to take advantage of lean production methods and utilization of new technologies, as well as specializing in niche industries such as the automotive, aerospace and defense industries.

It also is noteworthy to mention the newest wave of immigrant Pittsburghers seeking to fulfill their dreams in a land of promise just as our ancestors did centuries ago. Many times they arrive here to attend one of our high-quality institutions of higher education and make Pittsburgh their home long after commencement ceremonies have ended.

When coupled with natives and new Pittsburghers alike, the rich collaboration of industry, education and philanthropy in our area has allowed new-era companies to succeed in establishing themselves.

However, it is not enough to simply allow a business to start up and be done with it. The opportunity to thrive on a global scale must be promoted and exploited. And that is the responsibility of the regional business community.

During the current presidential race, much has been made of employment and the job losses due to foreign competition. On the surface, the argument to regain jobs lost to foreign competition, possibly by re-stimulating the once great industrial-based economy, is a weak one. Rather, creating new jobs altogether by nurturing and growing new-economy businesses is a more realistic proposition.

In many of the nations to which we have lost jobs due to direct competition and outsourcing, such as China and India, basic working conditions and product quality that we have come to take for granted in the United States are mere line items on a balance sheet and fall at the bottom of the list of priorities at that.

Because of our laws and underlying commitment to human rights, operating margins of American businesses are, as a given, higher than that of a Third-World competitor. The ability to compete on price as function of cost will never occur. And for the argument of quality, look no further than the automotive industry to find that the industry leader in quality is Hyundai, a Korean company that was a virtual unknown a short 20 years ago.

The primary tool to build and sustain new businesses and new jobs is to foster a business ecosystem -- finding the complementary functions of businesses in our regional economy, even among competitors, to mutually advance each other's interests far beyond the local market.

Part of this ecosystem isn't to resist the concept of outsourcing that has taken jobs from our region, but rather to embrace outsourcing. Outsourcing is the act of a business focusing on its core competency, determining what functions are not direct contributors to revenue and subsequently contracting a specialist firm to perform them. Domestic outsourcing adds to the equation that these functions be outsourced regionally among companies that have been created in the fields of accounting, marketing, sales and the like.

In this local market, which has a prevalent culture of protecting workers' rights, there will always be initial skepticism toward any movement that suggests eliminating positions from a work force. But by removing noncore positions in, say a manufacturer, the business cannot focus on only what it does best, but it also can do it with much greater price competitiveness, creating profits that can be reinvested into further growing the company to meet its new production demands, thereby creating new jobs.

On the other hand, the noncore jobs are outsourced to service provider firms, also within the regional ecosystem, where the revenue structure and typically, the high margins of those businesses can healthily support the additional influx of staff.

It is a paradigm shift in thinking, but not in a novel way since this already has been used to great success against the American economy. Rather than continue to fight a force that is likely not to be surmounted, why not beat the competitive forces at their own game by employing their own strategy locally, thus relegating their low-cost services as unnecessary?