  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.
