As the crucial charter review approaches, Thompson, who took up his new job yesterday, said the task was to change the "BBC more rapidly and radically over the next three to five years than at any previous point in its history".
"We believe that over the next decade, the BBC will have a bigger role than ever in building public value, creating a far more open, responsive, agile BBC and always putting our audiences first," he said.
Speaking of the restructure and review, Thompson said that the BBC was going into the process with an open mind and said that if the corporation did not look at these issues others would do it instead.
"We are going in to this with a genuinely open mind but these are questions which are not going to go away. If we did not examine them thoroughly ourselves, others would do it for us," Thompson said.
Thompson paid tribute to predecessors, including the ousted Greg Dyke, but said it was time for the BBC to move on to the next stage of its development. He said that the internal changes led by Dyke had done the BBC good but it now needed to look at the outside world and address key concerns.
"They got the BBC successfully to this point. Now, with the guidance of BBC chairman Michael Grade and the rest of the governors, we have to find our own way of taking the BBC on to the next stage."
The BBC said that one of Thompson's first moves will be to make the structure of the BBC simpler and more effective. This will see the creation of three new boards -- creative, journalism and commercial.
Thompson will chair a cross-media creative board and Alan Yentob, currently director of drama, entertainment and CBBC, will also become the BBC's creative director.
Deputy director-general Mark Byford will now lead all the BBC's journalism and will chair a new board, bringing all the BBC's journalism at an international, UK, national, regional and local level together for the first time.
The journalism board will also implement all the recommendations of the independent Neil Review, convened to identify lessons following Lord Hutton's report.
Thompson said the governors had rightly rejected splitting the role of director-general and editor-in-chief post-Hutton. "Nonetheless, I recognise that the BBC's journalism will require more continuous and concentrated editorial leadership. I have asked Mark Byford to make journalism the centrepiece of his role," Thompson said.
The commercial board, covering the BBC's commercial businesses, will be chaired by finance director John Smith. He will also take on the new role of chief operating officer and will lead the review of all the BBC's commercial businesses.
Carolyn Fairbairn, director of strategy and distribution, will head the commissioning and production review.
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