When Ioan Gornic suddenly starts blasting out 1990s dance hit “No Limits”, the assembled group of about 20 European factory managers shift nervously in their seats and try to avoid eye contact.
“Don’t worry, I’m not going to sing,” says the Shenzhen-based general manager for Zobele, an Italian maker of air freshener and insect repellent. “I just want to make the point that the only limits are the ones we put on ourselves.”
Mr Gornic, a manufacturing veteran, is running a workshop on “talent management” for executives in China’s factory heartland, where fast-rising wages, changing demographics and the differing needs of millennials are forcing companies to rethink the way they handle their workforce.