CIMAPRA19-E02-1-ENG history - E2 Managing Performance Updated: 2023

22 year old Surath Chandrasena created history at CIMA by being the only first ever student ever to receive Sri Lankan / world prizes for all six papers at Managerial Level examinations conducted by CIMA under its current syllabus.

Surath who completed the foundation course of CIMA within a span of six months whilst awaiting entrance to the University, is now an undergraduate currently memorizing for a Bachelor of Business Management at Bangalore University, India under a Scholarship awarded by the Government of India and is reported to have completed the second year with the highest aggregate in the batch.

He took his 1st CIMA world prize at Managerial level in the Financial Accounting and Tax Principles paper in the May 2007 exams and was placed joint-second in the world and First in Sri Lanka for Financial Analysis in the November 2007 exams. He was placed third in the world and first in India for Management Accounting, Performance Evaluation whilst securing first India for Organisational Management and Information Systems. He was also adjudged first in Sri Lanka for Management Accounting Decision Management and Integrated Management.

Surath who took the initial step of embarking on CIMA although he was confident of entering a university speaking on his achievement and recognition Said "I am delighted to know that I'm the first student to get prizes in all six subjects of the Managerial level. CIMA is a challenging course but it's a challenge which I enjoy meeting as it's not just an accounting course but a course that helps to understand the intricacies of business"

A past Senior Deputy Head Prefect of Royal College, Surath is no stranger to success. With 4 A's and an aggregate of 2.3456 at the advanced level he achieved the best results in commerce at Royal in 2005 and was placed Eleventh in the island during that year.

CIMA Divisional President, Ms Gowri Shanker responded with delight and said "Surath has not only made history but has made the Sri Lankan CIMA fraternity proud. Surath is a clear example of the increasing brand equity of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants in Sri Lanka. I congratulate Surath and look forward to him continuing with his record breaking strides in his future exams with CIMA and hope that he will be an inspiration and motivational factor for young CIMA students"

Congratulating Surath on his extraordinary accomplishment Bradley Emerson, CEO CIMA Sri Lanka stated that "This is a clear reflection of the intellectual capacity and commitment Surath displayed. Sri Lankan students have regularly walked away with world and Sri Lankan prizes, but a clear sweep of this nature is a record that would hold for a long time"

Surath is not confined to his books. He has excelled in many other fields whilst at school including scouting, drama and social service and is now known to be using his spare time whilst on vacation to lecture at Achievers where he himself studied for CIMA Foundation level.

In late September, the IT company project44 published the latest of its monthly reports analyzing on-time parcel-delivery performance in the last-mile segment. The report found that 85.1% of shipments were delivered on time, the highest monthly levels since COVID-19 hit the U.S.

Project44 said that the last-mile market is currently in its best shape since before the pandemic, and that the results bode favorably for peak-season performance.

Historical trends — those that predate the pandemic — would argue against those takeaways. In the parcel-delivery world, a roughly 15% failure rate would be considered inferior to the point of catastrophic. Parcel-delivery carriers who cite on-time performance in the high 90% range would strenuously argue against any hint that an 85% on-time delivery rate is considered acceptable, especially in a day and age when shipping performance can be make or break for all stakeholders.

Jenna Slagle, senior data analyst, marketing for project44 and the executive managing the survey, said she understands how its results could be interpreted differently by shippers, retailers and carriers. The analysis has many moving parts, she said. Delays could originate on the retailer’s end and not be the fault of the carrier. Outlier shipments — such as outsize, difficult-to-handle consignments — could skew the results, she said. Retailers have narrowed their delivery windows, making it more challenging for on-time delivery commitments to be hit, she said.

Overhanging all this is the tremendous growth in parcel-delivery traffic from 2020 through 2022, which could have impacted on-time delivery performance, Slagle said. At various times during that span, on-time delivery performance fell under 80%, she said. It’s not a stretch to connect the slowdown in volumes during 2023 with the improvement in on-time performance, though there is no hard data to correlate the two, she said. The August data reflected a “pretty good” performance by the parcel-delivery ecosystem, she said.

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On-time delivery performance is based on whether the consignee receives a package by the pre-committed day and time when the order was placed, according to project44.

Most of the packages were business-to-consumer transactions, though some business-to-business transactions may have been included in the analysis, she said. The demo universe exceeds 50 million parcels a month, which is a small slice of the total domestic parcel-delivery market.

The pre-COVID high for on-time performance stood at 88.3% in February 2020. The industry is beyond any COVID-related hangovers, Slagle said. She added that, based on project44 data, the on-time delivery rate in the mid-80% range will likely become the new normal for on-time delivery performance.

The post P44 on-time parcel delivery performance numbers defy history appeared first on FreightWaves.

'Lawson (Royal College of Music, UK) and Stowell (Cardiff Univ., UK) assembled a team of 112 expert contributors, most from British and American universities, and the entries are of uniformly high quality. … The encyclopedia includes many useful musical examples and illustrations, and most of the entries include a brief bibliography of suggested reading. Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals.'

W. E. Grim Source: Choice

‘This Encyclopedia is an outstanding publication which makes a valuable and timely contribution to the literature. It will be of interest not only to students, scholars, teachers and performers, but also to general music-lovers with a desire to learn about the subject of historical performance. It will undoubtedly become a standard text for many years to come …’

Source: Official Citation for 2019 C.B. Oldman Award

Patriots

In the second half, he was so stunningly bad — in execution and decision-making — that it felt like we were watching the unofficial end of his Patriots career.

By Chad Finn, The Boston Globe

November 13, 2023

Welcome to the Unconventional Review, an instant reaction to standouts, stats, and story lines from the Patriots’ most accurate game . . .

By unemotional, objective, analytical measures, Mac Jones’s performance in the Patriots’ 10-6 loss to the Colts Sunday was not close to the worst game by a quarterback in franchise history.

With the research assistance of pro-football-reference.com and its awesome Stathead feature, the worst passing performance in Patriots history – by lowest quarterback rating, with five completed passes as the baseline — was by Don Trull in a 44-16 loss to the Bills on Dec. 9, 1967.

He went 5 of 20 for 57 yards and three interceptions, for a QB rating of 0.0, which I believe Shaughnessy would call the Full Blutarsky. Poor Don Trull was replaced by Babe Parilli, who went 2 for 9 for 67 yards, a touchdown, and three picks.

There have been many other brutal performances by quarterbacks both obscure and legendary in Patriots lore. Jeff Carlson — who was basically the 1992 version of Bailey Zappe — went 7 for 20 for 67 yards and two interceptions in a 20-10 loss to the Bengals on Dec. 20 of that lost season, for a 4.2 QB rating. Jim Plunkett had five of the 25 worst games by quarterback rating in Patriots history, and Steve Grogan had four. Drew Bledsoe had an 18.2 rating after throwing four interceptions and no touchdowns in a November 1994 loss to the Browns, who had a very familiar coach.

Lousy games happen to every quarterback, even football immortals. Your guess on Tom Brady’s worst is probably correct: the 2003 They Hate Their Coach season-opening 31-0 loss to the Bills, when he threw four picks without a TD pass. From what I understand, he avenged it and then some.

Now, with requisite history and context aside . . . and by all emotional, subjective, unscientific measures . . . Jones’s performance Sunday was the worst I have ever seen from a Patriots quarterback. His first-half numbers (10 of 11, 105 yards) were fine, though padded by a 30-yard dump off to Demario Douglas when they should have tried a Hail Mary on the final play. But in the second half, he was so stunningly bad — in execution and decision-making — that it felt like we were watching the unofficial end of his Patriots career.

Jones made three truly inexcusable plays: a no-look fling to Rhamondre Stevenson on third and 3 at the Colts’ 17 midway through the third quarter, which resulted in offensive coordinator Bill “Teapot” O’Brien tearing into him on the sideline; an alley-ooped third-and-5 throw to Hunter Henry that Colts defensive back Julian Blackmon dropped in the end zone; and — in what had to be the worst throw of his Patriots career, no hyperbole — a soft-toss directly to Blackmon with Mike Gesicki steps beyond him and wide open in the end zone.

He was benched for Zappe for the final drive. Jones’s final numbers – 15 for 20, 170 yards, one pick, 79.2 rating — weren’t awful. But the performance was. It wasn’t that long ago that it seemed he was the answer at quarterback for the Patriots, a modern-day Chad Pennington. Now? Jones makes me appreciate the Tony Eason years. His best football life might be as a reclamation project for a team that has a starter much better than he is. Turn out the lights, because the party is over for him here.

Some further thoughts, upon immediate review . . .

Three players who were worth watching

Players suggested in the Unconventional Preview: Jonathan Taylor, Rhamondre Stevenson, Kenny Moore.

Rhamondre Stevenson: It’s time to declare him officially back to his 2022 form. After running for 87 yards – including a 64-yard touchdown burst — on just nine carries in the loss to the Commanders last Sunday, Stevenson took on a heavier workload this week and gained 88 yards on 20 carries. He was especially impressive on a drive that began with just under six minutes left in the third quarter and carried into the fourth, when he had three runs of 8 yards each and another for 9. Arguably his most impressive run came in advance of Jones’s interception, when he rammed his way for 6 yards on third and 5 with 5:40 left in the game, giving the Patriots a first down on the Colts 13. Stevenson now has 482 rushing yards this season – 175 the past two weeks. It’s actually not out of the question he reaches 1,000 yards for the second straight year.

Demario Douglas: The promising rookie receiver had his most productive game yet, making six catches for 84 yards on nine targets. A big chunk of his yardage came on the aforementioned 30-yard dump off right before halftime, but even without that play he would have been far and away the Patriots’ leading receiver. He may have made a couple of damaging mistakes, though. He appeared to be caught in no-man’s land as the returner on Colts punter Rigoberto Sanchez’s 69-yard boot that bounced at the Patriots’ 37-yard-line and rolled to the 18. And on Rodney Thomas’s interception that thwarted the Patriots’ desperate final drive, quarterback Bailey Zappe’s reaction seemed to indicate that his target, Douglas, wasn’t where he was supposed to be.

Dayo Odeyingbo: Anyone predict this guy as their player of the game? Didn’t think so. But he sure made a case. The Colts’ third-year defensive end entered with three sacks this season. He doubled that total less than 18 minutes into the game. Two of his sacks came on third down, including his first on the Patriots’ promising opening possession, when they had to settle for a 37-yard Chad Ryland field goal.

Grievance of the game

It has to be Jones’s interception that got him benched. There were other options — JuJu Smith-Schuster had a pair of penalties before the snap, which is unacceptable — but nothing as egregious or impactful on the outcome of this game and, for that matter, the direction of the franchise.

Three notes scribbled in the margins

Predicted score: Colts 31, Patriots 17

Final score: Colts 10, Patriots 6

Isaiah McKenzie, who torched the Patriots for 11 catches for 125 yards and a touchdown in a 2021 game while he was with the Bills, remains a nuisance. He hauled in a 30-yard catch on third down on the Colts’ first possession, and later returned a kickoff 42 yards . . . The Patriots defense did a respectable job containing Jonathan Taylor. The Colts back ran 9 times for 31 yards on their first series, punctuating it with a 2-yard touchdown run on fourth down. But he gained just 38 yards on 14 carries after that drive . . . Bryce Baringer averaged 62.5 yards on four punts, including a 79-yarder. Any chance he can play quarterback?

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