This article explores how knowledge management (KM) can reach beyond organisational boundaries to help solve the ‘wicked’ problems facing society today (Jacobs and Cuganesan, 2014). According to the United Nations, “eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty, is the greatest global challenge and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development”. However, KM mainly focuses on solving ‘tame’ organisational problems, rather than addressing “wicked” social problems (Horst and Webber, 1973). Arguably, KM was not designed to solve wicked problems. However, a rethinking of KM is needed to ensure that we do not continue to improve organisational performance that enriches companies at the expense maintaining a vicious circle of poverty for the workers, including children (Dumay et al., 2018). The paper is an essay based on evidence from the KM, IC, social and sustainability literature along with publicly-available data to demonstrate how KM can move from beyond organisational boundaries to address the wicked problems impacting them and the wider societal eco-system. The paper outlines why scholars and practitioners need to change the way they use KM in their organisations to address wicked problems through problem-driven research and how we need to reconceptualise KM as a technology for improving society. What appears to be missing from two decades of KM research is a voice critical of KM that has been present in IC since the early naughties. KM needs to be more like IC research. The essay demonstrates the need for knowledge managers to move beyond using KM science to improve organisations from the inside (Serenko and Dumay, 2015b). While it is still important to improve organisational efficiencies and manage the knowledge inside companies, it should not be at the expense of the most vulnerable members of society. By understanding the potential impacts that KM can have on improving society, and not just organisations, we can develop a renewed interest KM that can help address the ‘wicked’ problems facing society today. To do so, the paper introduces the concept of ‘collaborative organisational coalitions’ in place of ‘communities of practice’ as a way forward using problem-driven research.