Most academic institutions are highly structured organizations, not unlike large corporations and the military.

Students must abide by a code of conduct, faculty members have rigid tenure requirements, and campus security will boot and tow your car if you park alongside a curb that’s painted red.

The stakes are especially high for universities with prestige brands that have been built over centuries.  Harvard, with its $26 billion endowment and top rating among global academic institutions, has a long way to fall if its reputation gets tarnished.

Yet Harvard is also the place where great minds are encouraged to challenge the status quo.   It’s where Mark Zuckerberg, his roommate and their computer science chums founded Facebook.

It’s against that backdrop Brian Kenny accepted the challenge of becoming the chief marketing and communications officer for the Harvard Business School.

“We have to get comfortable being uncomfortable,” was the advice Kenny gave those who lured him to Harvard two years ago.

Among the tactics Kenny and his team have employed to battle what he calls an undeserved reputation for being “old and stodgy and technology-averse” are the use of LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and consumer-generated content.

Kenny and I spoke at a Business Development Institute session called “Social Integration: Harmonizing Social Channels into the Marketing, Communications & Service Platform.”