RARELY elegant, often brutal, sacking the boss is a traumatic way to change direction. The dispatch of Giovanni Perissinotto, Generali's chief executive since 2001, was no exception, but at least his end came swiftly. He was turfed out on June 2nd, just two days after Italy's stockmarket regulator told Generali, the country's largest insurance company, to convene a board meeting to tackle a boardroom split. Mr Perissinotto has been replaced by Mario Greco, currently head of general insurance business at Zurich Insurance of Switzerland. The main charge that several directors levelled at Mr Perissinotto was that Generali had performed poorly on his watch. Recent figures bear that out. Profits slumped last year to €856m ($1.2 billion) from €1.7 billion in 2010, and net profits in the first quarter of 2012 were down on the same period last year. Moreover, the Italian insurer's stockmarket performance has been far worse than that of European competitors. Since the beginning of 2011 Generali's shares have lost 37% while Zurich's have declined by only 21%. Little wonder that one director told Mr Perissinotto bluntly that he was not up to the job. By tradition prudent in its investments, Generali has a large portfolio of government bonds but they are not as safe as they once seemed. Losses on Greek bonds contributed to last year's sorry results and Generali's holding of about €50 billion of Italian bonds adds to the market's wariness. Moreover, its place in a web of business connections and some tricky shareholdings bring other problems. Its biggest shareholder is Mediobanca, an investment bank. Mediobanca is urgently trying to seal the rescue of one of Generali's competitors. Rather than Mediobanca's preferred candidate, Mr Perissinotto is thought to have encouraged a stronger rescuer from private equity. Mr Perissinotto's replacement arrives with a bagful of insurance experience but mostly obtained in American, German and Swiss firms, where the business cultures are very different from Italy's political wheeling, dealing and compromising. Investors expecting Mr Greco to transform Generali may be disappointed.