Grade made the comments at the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers conference today, where he spoke on the BBC after the Green Paper, published by the government last week.
He admitted that the BBC had sometimes acted in a way that impacted negatively on commercial competitors, and that advertisers may have felt bruised by the corporation.
However, in the future, Grade said that no new services would be approved unless independent evidence shows that any potential negative impact on other media providers is outweighed by the public value created.
"Under the new charter, the BBC will continue to be a big beast. But that is no reason why it shouldn't also be a good corporate neighbour to other media providers. I believe it has a duty so to be," he said.
The Green Paper will bring about the abolition of the BBC's board of governors, to be replaced by a trust. At the same time, non-executive directors will be introduced to the BBC's board of management, to play a role that Grade described as a "critical friend".
Grade told delegates at the ISBA conference today that he considered licence-fee payers to effectively be the shareholders in the BBC, and the most important people to the corporation.
To this end, he said that the new trust must ensure that the voices of licence-fee payers were heard and their views were taken into account.
"We're also working on new methods to make the BBC more accountable, and more responsive to complaints. I believe what good business leaders preach: that the real litmus test of any business is how it deals with complaints," Grade said.
He took the chance to reiterate his belief that the whole industry benefited from a strong BBC, via its investment in high-quality, innovative TV and radio programming, adding that the BBC must set the gold standard for every genre of programming across all its media.
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