Creativity vrs. Innovation: A Toughie

One is tempted to say that creativity and innovation are pretty much the same, but then, why would we need two words to describe them? Certainly they are closely related--siblings, at least. Personally, I'd say that "creativity" generally implies inventing something new and "innovation" means improving something that exists already. Americans, for instance, created television, but the Japanese were so innovative with television production and design that they put the Americans out of business. Of course, in real life, creation doesn't take place in a vacuum, and in art and design there isn't anything(that I've seen, at least) that doesn't build on or incorporate what came before it. In the end, I'm not sure the question of whether there's a difference between creativity and innovation is very important. Artists and designers do the best they can to solve their problems and the problems of their clients and the solutions they come up with are either acceptable or not. It's always nice to discover, at the end of the process, that one has innovated. But the important thing is that all interested parties be satisfied. Which is to say, I think creativity and innovation should be thought of as byproducts of a process, not goals in themselves. Trying to be original is a waste of time, and if you think differently, you're not a true post-modern.