Expressed in simpler words, we can say that a society is innovative when it continuously adapts and successfully functions in a rapidly changing environment. In Canada, for instance, the universal health care system was an outcome of such a coherent societal vision. It was a major innovation and is still viewed by many as one of the finest in the world. Innovation is different from creativity 19. Innovation is different from creativity.
Innovation is the application of creative new ideas, the implementation of inventions.
In contrast, creativity is the generating and articulating of new ideas. Similarly, people can be innovative without being creative. For example, if they apply or implement inventions that were made elsewhere then they are innovative, even though the inventions, the creative ideas, were not their own. The Sony Walkman, for example, started as an idea, an invention. Once the invention was implemented, it became an innovation.