On generalized Tian Ji’s horse racing strategy

Abstract

Tian Ji’s horse racing strategy, a famous Chinese legend, constitutes a promising concept to be applied to important issues in today’s competitive environment; this strategy is elaborated on and analyzed by examining the general case. The mathematical formulation concerning the calculation of winning, drawing or losing combinations and probabilities is presented to illustrate the interesting insights on how ancient philosophies could promote thinking in business competitiveness, in particular, the wisdom behind sacrificing the part for the benefit of the whole or sacrificing the short-term objectives in order to gain the long-term goal.