How A Finance Technologist Is Rethinking Risk In Pharma & Manufacturing

The pressure of risks has always been there, and with regulatory demands, economic volatility, and digital transformation, it's changing in nature and is influencing how companies operate. At the center of this shift is the need for better risk management, an area that is no longer limited to compliance but is also about building resilience and enabling innovation.

For Karunakar Grandhe, Associate Director of Technical Product Management at a leading global pharmaceutical company, risk management is a broad and interconnected challenge. With nearly two decades of experience spanning SAP, business intelligence, cloud platforms, and advanced analytics, he brings both technical depth and business knowledge to the table. What sets him apart is his holistic approach, one that recognizes how financial, operational, and digital risks overlap in highly regulated industries.

Karunakar’s career path has been shaped by his ability to bridge finance and technology. With certifications and expertise across finance, tax, treasury, and supply chain, he understands both the language of IT and the practical needs of business leaders. His work ensures that new systems are not only technically sound but also meet the financial and operational requirements of the organization.

Looking back at his experience, Karunakar emphasizes the importance of end-to-end process understanding. In pharmaceuticals and manufacturing, risks cannot be confined to a single department. They flow through processes such as foreign exchange exposure, trading, insurance, and cash management. By developing analytical solutions that give treasury leaders real-time insights, he helps companies manage risks related to banking, cash, and foreign currencies more effectively.

One of his key insights is the need for cross-functional collaboration. Risk management requires cooperation across IT teams, business stakeholders, and external vendors. Technology roadmaps must align with broader enterprise strategies, ensuring that innovation supports both compliance and operational efficiency. Karunakar believes this collaboration is essential for organizations that want to adopt new technologies without creating gaps in maintaining compliance and operational excellence.

The landscape of risk management is also shifting with the rise of AI, automation, and cloud computing. These tools are changing how risks are identified and handled. Predictive analytics, for example, can anticipate equipment failures before they happen, while machine learning can detect anomalies in financial transactions. For Karunakar, these technologies are about giving organizations the ability to optimize cash flows, detect anomalies in financial transactions and act quickly.

As a product manager, he leads work in foreign exchange risk, insurance, and data analytics within the finance treasury IT division. This includes mapping end-to-end business processes for FX risk exposure, trading, settlement, developing technology roadmaps and aligning them with enterprise architecture, clarifying stakeholder delivery expectations and requirements, providing technical leadership to product teams and managing execution. 

Karunakar’s impact is most visible in the projects he has led at the Global Pharmaceutical company. Among them is a Bank Risk Management System, built using Power BI and AWS. This dashboard gives leaders real-time visibility into global banking exposures, modelling transaction flows and assessing risks tied to customers and vendors. It required close collaboration across IT, business analysts, and external partners, highlighting his ability to lead in complex environments.

Another significant contribution is his work on VAT Data Analytics for compliance reporting. By creating a unified platform that combined SAP and tax data, he made it easier for the company to meet reporting requirements across multiple entities. Similarly, his Treasury Cash Alignment and Insurance Dashboards provide actionable insights for cash flow forecasting and property insurance management.

Automation has also been a key theme in his work. For example, he led the automation of withholding tax reporting, reducing manual effort and improving accuracy. These projects exemplify how a finance technologist can drive risk management innovation by integrating analytics, automation, and cloud technologies into core business processes.

By combining technical expertise, strategic leadership, and a collaborative approach, Karunakar Grandhe is helping clients in the broader pharma and manufacturing sectors rethink risk management for a new era. The result is a more resilient, data-driven organization that can navigate complexity and seize new opportunities.

The role of the finance technologist in pharma and manufacturing is rapidly evolving. Leaders like Karunakar are at the forefront, leveraging advanced analytics, automation, and cloud to rethink risk management. By integrating these technologies with deep domain expertise, they are building more resilient, data-driven organizations that can navigate complexity and seize opportunities in the global landscape.

Published on: Monday, October 13, 2025, 03:20 PM IST